When Trump fans snapped up $550 million worth of WLFI, a token associated with the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial crypto project, they thought they were getting the deal of the century.
The coin, which was purchased for $0.015 to $0.05 between October 2024 and January 2025, surged to an all-time high of $0.33 when it began trading last September, turning a modest purchase into a small fortune overnight—at least on paper.
But there’s just one problem.
The founders of the world’s free finance, including U.S. President Donald Trump and his sons Eric, Donald Jr. and Barron, have given themselves the sole power to decide who can sell and when.
The project has released 20% of its tokens so far, with the promise that holders will vote on when the remaining tokens will be available for trading.
But months have passed and the vote has yet to materialize.
Now, dozens of token holders are pleading with the protocol’s creators on the World Liberty Financial forum to let them cash out while watching WLFI’s value evaporate.
The coin is down approximately 54% in the past 5 months.
“Nearly 80% of WLFI pre-sale tokens are still locked nearly two years later,” said one WLFI holder. “We survive turmoil and silence because we believe. But at what point does patience turn into neglect?”
“They are my investments and I want to get them,” said another. “We have become hostages.”
So far, these requests have been ignored.
To add to the plight of holders, World Liberty’s creators have put forward a proposal to allocate WLFI as an incentive to encourage more people to use the protocol, which could put more pressure on the token’s price.
Spokesperson for World Free Finance stated DL News The project team maintains frequent and regular contact with its global community.
The situation with the WLFI token echoes that of dozens of other cryptocurrency projects.
The still largely unregulated industry has become a playground for fly-by-night crypto hucksters who promise big bucks, raise millions and then leave those who buy in to dry.
Cryptocurrency investors with a tolerance for risk are often attracted by the promise of huge returns, piling into such projects without fully understanding what they are getting into.
The co-founders of World Liberty Financial seem to know this game well.
Among them is Chase Herro, a former “get-rich-quick” course instructor and self-proclaimed “trash bag on the Internet.”
In a YouTube video that has since been deleted, Herro said: “If the story is correct, you could sell shit in a can, wrapped in urine, covered in human skin, for a billion dollars because people would buy it.”
When Herro founded WLF in 2024 with an all-star cast of Trump allies — including U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and his sons Zach and Alex, as well as longtime business partner Zachary Folkman — they made no promises.
Hidden within the agreement’s so-called golden paper, essentially a lengthy marketing pitch, are important details about how the project was set up.
The World Liberty Financial protocol is not directly controlled by WLFI token holders. This can be confusing for token buyers, as other protocols that issue governance tokens do give holders control over the protocol.
The impact is that while token holders can create and propose changes, the protocol’s co-founders screen proposals before voting and reserve the right to block them at their discretion.
Additionally, WLFI tokens do not provide the right to receive any returns, dividends, airdrops or other distributions from the protocol, and there is no guarantee that more than the initial 20% of the tokens will be tradable.
This situation leaves dissatisfied buyers with little recourse.
Even World Liberty Financial’s most high-profile backer, Tron founder Justin Sun, appears to be under attack.
He purchased $75 million worth of WLFI in the project’s token sale. When part of the collection became available for trade in September, Sun moved approximately $9 million worth of funds to another crypto wallet.
In response, World Liberty’s creators froze the tokens, preventing Sun from selling them.
Following the incident, Sun vowed to purchase more WLFI tokens in what appeared to be a gesture of appeasement towards the protocol’s creators.
His tokens remain frozen and have plummeted in value.
To be sure, not all WLFI holders will experience buyer’s remorse.
“Most people don’t understand what WLFI will become in the future,” said one token holder on the World Liberty governance forum.
“Because of the 80% lockdown, there will be a wealth transfer that will make you rich, but you haven’t seen it yet, which is a shame.”
However, even among those who remain supportive of World Liberty, there is a widespread feeling that progress on the protocol, whose tokens are worth over $4 billion, is progressing more slowly than many expected.
In its gold paper, the project promises financial democratization and access to financial opportunity.
Yet so far, World Liberty has launched products that have only enriched its co-founders and done little to benefit token holders.
Its most successful product is the USD1 stablecoin, a competitor to other dollar-pegged assets such as Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC.
There are currently over $5 billion worth of $1 tokens in circulation, making it the fifth largest stablecoin.
It’s unclear how much World Liberty makes from $1. But based on Tether’s revenue running similar products, $1 could potentially bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue per year.
According to the World Freedom Organization’s Gold Paper, 100 percent of those profits, plus any other revenue generated by the agreement, goes directly into the pockets of the Trump family and the Witkoffs, minus the $15 million set aside for operating expenses of the agreement.
Meanwhile, scrutiny of Trump’s cryptocurrency dealings continues to grow.
For the president’s political opponents, the issue has become a sticking point in the passage of the Clarification Act, a sweeping cryptocurrency market structure bill expected to give the industry a much-needed boost.
Democrats said they could not support the bill because it would allow Trump to continue profiting from cryptocurrencies.
“The White House is making this much more difficult,” New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, the top Democratic negotiator on the bill, said Thursday.
“I’ve had private conversations with Republican colleagues and staff who agree with me. … Donald Trump himself is squandering money on cryptocurrencies, it’s like I created Corycoin,” he added, calling it “ridiculous.”
This is not a positive development for beleaguered WLFI token holders.
World Liberty, meanwhile, announced it will host a live forum on the project on February 18 at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private luxury club in Palm Beach, Florida.
In a video message posted on the World Liberty X account, Donald Trump Jr. said the invitation-only event would “bring together some of the brightest minds in finance and technology that we know and respect.”
Whether this will include anyone representing the interests of WLFI token holders remains to be seen.
Updated on January 30th: Added comments from World Free Finance Spokesperson.
Tim Craig is DL News’ DeFi reporter based in Edinburgh. Contact us and get tips tim@dlnews.com.
