The Trump family’s most core token will be launched tonight. How much should it be worth?

After months of controversy and anticipation, WLFI has finally reached its defining moment. On August 26th, the Trump family's crypto project, WLFI, announced the launch of its Lockbox page, allowing holders to transfer their tokens and begin the unlocking process. At 8:00 AM EST on September 1st, WLFI will complete its first token release—20% of the initial allocation will officially enter circulation. For this governance token, once described in the white paper as "likely never tradable," this step almost symbolizes a turning point in the project's narrative: from conception and voting to actual realization, WLFI is completing its transformation from a "political symbol" to a "tradable asset." The designers behind WLFI: World Liberty Financial (WLFI) was founded on September 16 of last year under the guidance of real estate magnate Steve Witkoff and his son Zach. Co-founders also include crypto influencers Chase Herro and Zak Folkman. The Trump family also features prominently, with Trump listed as the "chief cryptocurrency advocate," while his sons Eric, Donald Jr., and Barron are "Web3 ambassadors." In addition, WLFI has three technical leaders: 1. Rich Teo: Head of Stablecoins and Payments. He previously founded the itBit exchange and the stablecoin company Paxos, and is currently the CEO of Paxos Asia. Rich is also an advisor to the SocialFi project Republic. 2. Corey Caplan: Head of Technical Strategy and co-founder of the DeFi platform Dolomite, responsible for integrating lending and trading functions. 3. Bogdan Purnavel: Lead Developer, formerly of Dough Finance. One of World Liberty Financial's first initiatives was to sell its own tokens. The ICO began on October 15, 2024, selling 20 billion $WLFI tokens at $0.015, earning the company approximately $300 million. On January 20, 2025, the day of Trump's inauguration, WLFI announced a second token sale, citing "huge demand and strong interest." An additional 5 billion tokens were issued at $0.05, a 230% increase from the initial sale price. The second sale was completed nearly two months later, on March 14, having raised its full $250 million goal. According to WLFI's "Gold Paper," WLFI tokens will give holders voting rights on important matters affecting the protocol, such as upgrades. The expected token distribution is 33.893% through token sales, 32.6% for incentives and community development, 30% for "initial supporters," and 3.5% for "core team and advisors." The project white paper also states, "$WLFI tokens will be issued to raise funds to purchase tokens of mainstream projects with growth potential. $WLFI token holders will share in the appreciation of the asset portfolio." The project white paper clearly states that the $WLFI purchased by users is only a governance token, and the $550 million already belongs to the project. However, the Trump family's repeated crypto investments seem to "foreshadow" that WLFI will be more than just a non-transferable token for "identity verification." Now, with the opening of the Lockbox feature, WLFI's token issuance process has officially entered the "cash-out phase." The previously sold 55 billion tokens will be gradually released under the community governance framework. What is the valuation of the WLFI token? On August 23rd, WLFI announced the initial unlocking rules, stating that only the token shares of early pre-sale users will be unlocked at the initial launch of WLFI. Specifically, 20% of the WLFI purchased by each address in the $0.015 and $0.05 rounds will be unlocked, while the unlocking plan for the remaining 80% will continue to be determined by the community through a governance vote. The token shares of founders, team members, advisors, and partners remain locked and will not be included in the initial unlocking. The market generally believes that the launch of WLFI circulation marks a potential "price repricing" moment. The initial 20% unlocking release is both a test of investor interest and a potential turning point in determining whether WLFI's market capitalization can reach a higher level. Based on the first round of financing valuation of $1.5 billion (corresponding to $0.015 per coin) and the second round valuation of $5 billion (corresponding to $0.05 per coin), the current over-the-counter price of $0.24 represents a more than 16-fold increase in WLFI's valuation over the past eight months. From a horizontal comparison, the market generally regards WLFI as a heavyweight project comparable to the Trump token. The latter reached a market capitalization of $80 billion in its early days, while WLFI's current preliminary market capitalization forecast is close to $30 billion, leaving the market with considerable room for imagination. According to a joint disclosure by Accountable.US and Bloomberg, among the top 50 WLFI addresses, at least 14 users hold coins through trading platforms restricted by the United States, holding a total of more than 6.7 billion WLFI tokens (market value of approximately US$335 million), and the most eye-catching holder is undoubtedly Justin Sun. In November 2024, Justin Sun's TRON DAO became the largest independent investor in World Liberty Financial (WLFI), subscribing to 3 billion WLFI tokens for $30 million. According to sources familiar with the matter, the transaction price was significantly lower than the market's expected IPO price of $0.015 at the time, with the actual transaction price reaching $0.01, meaning Justin Sun invested at a discount of approximately 64%. This price not only earned him an early investment bonus but also established his core position in the WLFI project. Subsequently, WLFI officially announced on November 27, 2024, that Justin Sun had joined the project as an advisor, but there is no mention of Justin on the WLFI website.

Aqua1 Fund

But recently, a fund squeezed out Sun Ge's number one position on the list. On June 26, Web3 native fund Aqua 1 announced the strategic purchase of $100 million in WLFI, the governance token of the Trump family's crypto project World Liberty Financial, aiming to participate in the governance of the decentralized financial platform and accelerate the construction of the blockchain financial ecosystem. According to on-chain information, Aqua1 Fund holds 800,000,000 WLFI. Furthermore, Aqua 1 plans to establish Aqua Fund in the Middle East and co-incubate the RWA tokenization platform BlockRock with WLFI. In April 2025, Abu Dhabi-based crypto investment and market-making firm DWF Labs announced it had invested $25 million in tokens issued by World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a crypto project controlled by the Trump family. Mike Dudas, founder of 6th Man Ventures and The Block, purchased over $145,000 worth of WLFI tokens on January 20, 2025, just before Trump's inauguration. That's approximately 970,000 WLFI tokens. Troy Murray, a member of the BarnBridge DAO, purchased approximately 666,000 WLFI tokens. Sigil Fund (pseudonym Fiskantes) This Gibraltar-based fund's chief investment officer, known as "Fiskantes," spent 40 Ethereum (approximately $130,000) to purchase WLFI tokens. Based on the WLFI issue price, this translates to approximately 400,000 WLFI tokens. From an "untradable" governance token to a lockbox-unlocked asset circulation; from a "presidential ambassador" to on-chain holdings; from a stablecoin financing tool to an international investment matching platform, WLFI presents an unusual narrative: the convergence of political and capital forces through cryptocurrency. The initial unlock on September 1st will mark the starting point for WLFI's entry into the real market and a critical moment to test whether the "politics-finance-crypto" triple narrative can be fulfilled.