After months of controversy and anticipation, WLFI has finally reached a decisive moment.

On August 26, the Trump family's cryptocurrency project WLFI announced the launch of the Lockbox page, where holders can move their tokens to prepare for the unlocking process. At 8 a.m. Eastern Time on September 1, WLFI will complete its first release — the initial allocation of 20% of tokens will officially enter circulation.

For this governance token that was once described in the whitepaper as "potentially never tradeable," this step almost symbolizes a turning point in the project's narrative: from concept, voting to actual realization, WLFI is completing the transition from a "political symbol" to a "tradable asset."

The Designers Behind WLFI

World Liberty Financial (WLFI) was established on September 16 last year and was founded and guided by real estate tycoon Steve Witkoff and his son Zach. The co-founders also include crypto KOL Chase Herro and Zak Folkman.

The Trump family also holds a significant position, with Trump being listed as the "Chief Cryptocurrency Advocate," and his sons Eric, Don Jr., and Barron being "Web3 Ambassadors."

In addition, WLFI has three technical leads,

1. Rich Teo: Head of Stablecoin and Payments, previously founded the exchange itBit and stablecoin company Paxos, currently serving as CEO of Paxos Asia. Additionally, Rich is also an advisor to the SocialFi project RepubliK.

2. Corey Caplan: Head of Technical Strategy, co-founder of the DeFi platform Dolomite, responsible for integrating lending and trading functions.

3. Bogdan Purnavel: Chief Developer, formerly a developer at Dough Finance.

One of World Liberty Financial's initial moves was to sell its own token. The ICO started on October 15, 2024, selling 200 billion $WLFI at a price of $0.015, earning the company approximately $3 billion.

On January 20, 2025, the same day as the Trump inauguration, WLFI announced its second token sale, citing "huge demand and strong interest." It issued 50 billion tokens at a price of $0.05, a 230% increase from the initial sale. The second sale was completed on March 14, nearly two months later, achieving the full target of $250 million.

According to WLFI's "Golden Paper," the WLFI token will give holders the right to vote on important protocol matters, such as upgrades. In the expected token distribution, 33.893% is allocated through token sales, 32.6% is allocated for incentives and community development, 30% is allocated for the "initial supporters," and the "core team and advisors" hold 3.5%.

The project whitepaper also states, "Issue $WLFI tokens to raise funds, purchase mainstream project tokens with growth potential, and share the portfolio's appreciation with $WLFI token holders." The project whitepaper clearly indicates that the $WLFI purchased by users is solely a governance token, with 5.5 billion USD already belonging to the project team.

However, the Trump family's repeated forays into cryptocurrency seem to "foresee" that WLFI will not merely serve as a "delegated authentication" non-transferable token. Now, with the opening of the Lockbox feature, WLFI's token issuance logic has officially entered the "realization phase," and the previously sold 55 billion tokens will gradually be released under a community governance framework.

What is the Valuation Geometry of the WLFI Token?

On August 23, according to the initial unlocking rules announced by WLFI, only the token shares of early presale users will be unlocked at the WLFI opening. Specifically, 20% of the WLFI purchased by each address in the rounds at $0.015 and $0.05 will be unlocked, and the remaining 80% of the unlocking plan will still be decided by the community through governance voting. The token shares of founders, teams, advisors, and partners remain locked and will not be included in the initial unlock.

The market generally believes that WLFI's circulation kickoff is a potential moment for "price revaluation." The initial 20% unlock release serves as a test of market attention and could be a crucial turning point for whether WLFI's market cap can reach a higher range.

If we take the first-round financing valuation of $15 billion (corresponding to $0.015 per token) and the second round valuation of $50 billion ($0.05 per token) as a basis, with the current OTC price at $0.24, it means that WLFI's valuation has grown more than 16 times in the past 8 months.

From a horizontal comparison perspective, the market generally sees WLFI as a heavyweight project comparable to the TRUMP token. The latter skyrocketed to an $800 billion market cap shortly after its launch, while WLFI's current initial market cap estimate is close to $300 billion, and the market has high expectations for its potential.

Which Whales Have Bought In?

According to disclosures from Accountable.US and Bloomberg, at least 14 users from the top 50 WLFI addresses have been holding coins through a U.S.-restricted exchange, collectively owning over 6.7 billion WLFI tokens (with a market value of approximately $335 million). The most prominent whale among them is undoubtedly Justin Sun.

In November 2024, Justin Sun's TRON DAO became the largest independent investor in World Liberty Financial (WLFI), subscribing to as much as 30 billion WLFI tokens for $30 million. Insider sources revealed that the transaction price was well below the market's expected $0.015 issuance price, with the actual executed price at $0.01, meaning Sun entered at a hefty discount of around 66%. This price not only secured him early investment dividends but also solidified his central position within the WLFI project.

Subsequently, the WLFI team officially announced on November 27, 2024, that Justin Sun had joined the project as an Advisor, yet Sun's profile is not seen on the WLFI website.

Aqua1 Fund

However, recently, a fund has displaced Sun's top position. On June 26th, the Web3 native fund Aqua1 announced a strategic purchase of $100 million in the Trump family's crypto project, World Liberty Financial's governance token WLFI, aiming to engage in governance of the decentralized finance platform and accelerate the blockchain financial ecosystem's development. According to on-chain data, Aqua1 Fund holds 800,000,000 WLFI tokens.

Furthermore, Aqua1 plans to establish an Aqua Fund in the Middle East and collaborate with WLFI to jointly incubate the RWA tokenization platform, BlockRock.

DWF Labs

In April 2025, Abu Dhabi-based crypto investment and liquidity firm DWF Labs announced a $25 million investment in tokens issued by the Trump family-controlled crypto project World Liberty Financial (WLFI).

Mike Dudas

Mike Dudas, Founder of 6th Man Ventures and The Block, purchased over $145,000 worth of WLFI tokens on January 20, 2025, on the eve of Trump's inauguration ceremony. Approximately 970,000 WLFI tokens.

Troy Murray

BarnBridge DAO member Troy Murray purchased approximately 666,000 WLFI tokens.

Sigil Fund (Alias Fiskantes)

This fund based in Gibraltar, with its Chief Investment Officer going by the alias 'Fiskantes,' spent 40 Ethereum (around $130,000) to purchase WLFI tokens, which, based on the WLFI issuance price, amounts to approximately 400,000 WLFI tokens.

From a 'non-tradable' governance token to asset circulation upon Lockbox unlock; from a 'presidential ambassador' to on-chain holdings; from a stablecoin financing tool to an international investment matchmaking platform, WLFI presents an unusually compelling narrative—where political and capital forces converge through cryptocurrency. The initial unlock on September 1 will mark the starting point for WLFI's entry into the real market game, a critical moment to validate whether the 'political-financial-crypto' triple narrative can be realized.

Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:

Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia