World Liberty Financial sinks to record low on news of undisclosed 5.9 billion token sales to private investors
Secret token sales spark controversy and face investor backlash amid governance and liquidity concerns.
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Add us on Google by Vivian Nguyen May. 1, 2026World Liberty Financial, the DeFi venture co-founded by the Trump family and members of the Witkoff family, sold an additional 5.9 billion WLFI tokens to private accredited investors after closing two public fundraising rounds that brought in over $550 million.
The activity was uncovered through governance filings examined by Tokenomist.ai on behalf of Bloomberg, and later confirmed by the company. The follow-on sales, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, were not clearly disclosed to existing investors.
Under the project’s own disclosures, 75% of net WLFI token sale proceeds flow to DT Marks DEFI LLC, an entity affiliated with President Trump and certain family members. That same entity also holds 22.5 billion WLFI tokens outright.
In contrast, early investors have limited liquidity, having been permitted to sell only a fraction of their holdings, while the majority remains locked out without clear timelines.
The analysis comes as the Trump-backed project faces mounting pressure from crypto community members over a token freeze, alleged secret backdoor controls, and massive investor losses.
Justin Sun, an early backer of WLFI, has accused the project of concealing a blacklist feature in its smart contract which he says enables it to freeze or effectively seize token holders’ assets. The TRON founder escalated the dispute last week by filing a lawsuit against World Liberty.
A governance proposal approved in April 2026 imposes a minimum two-year lockup on early buyers, with phased unlocking scheduled over subsequent years.
Investors who do not accept the updated terms risk indefinite lockups of their holdings. Founders opting into the vesting framework must burn 10% of their token allocation, which the project describes as an alignment mechanism.
The governance vote itself has drawn pointed criticism. On-chain analysis suggests that just four wallet addresses controlled roughly 40% of the voting power on the proposal to unlock 62 billion tokens, with more than 40 billion earmarked for insiders.
WLFI’s slide deepened following Bloomberg’s findings. The token dropped under $0.056 this morning and reached a fresh all-time low, per CoinGecko.
The White House maintains that Trump himself has no role in managing the venture.
“President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest,” said spokesperson Anna Kelly.
Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy to the Middle East and father of WLFI’s chief executive Zach Witkoff, has reportedly divested from the project.
Elsewhere, another Trump-backed project, Official Trump (TRUMP), has struggled to maintain favor. The Solana-based meme coin is under scrutiny for allegations that it monetizes presidential access.
TRUMP also hit a new all-time high earlier today. It changed hands at about $2.3 at press time, down roughly 97% from its record high.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
