The Trump family's net worth surged by approximately $6 billion following the launch of the WLFI token through their World Liberty Financial venture. The token, tied to a planned lending and borrowing platform on Ethereum, debuted for trading on September 1, 2025, with an initial fully diluted valuation (FDV) reaching $30–$40 billion before settling around $25 billion. The Trump family holds 22.5 billion WLFI tokens (worth ~$6 billion at current prices), though these are locked under a yet-to-be-determined vesting schedule.
Early investors scored massive gains, with presale rounds priced at $0.015 and $0.05 per token. At peak intraday prices, these buyers saw returns of over 2,000%. However, on-chain data revealed that 80% of the top 10 WLFI wallets partially or fully sold their holdings shortly after launch, contributing to significant volatility. The token opened around $0.35, fell to $0.21, and rebounded to $0.25 overnight.
World Liberty Financial raised $750 million last summer, with a circular deal allowing the Trumps to retain up to 75% of revenue from WLFI sales, adding as much as $500 million. The venture also launched USD1, a dollar-backed stablecoin already listed on major exchanges like Binance and Upbit. WLFI recorded $1 billion in trading volume in its first hour, per CoinMarketCap.
Governance and centralization concerns persist. Despite being marketed as decentralized, WLFI is heavily influenced by the Trump family and a small group of investors, including backers like Justin Sun and Abu Dhabi’s Aqua 1 Foundation. Donald Trump Jr. emphasized that WLFI is a governance token with broader ambitions, not a memecoin. The community proposed a buyback-and-burn plan to reduce supply and counter selling pressure, though critics warn it could drain treasury funds and increase volatility.
The Trump family’s crypto influence extends beyond WLFI, with entities linked to them controlling ~80% of the TRUMP memecoin. However, WLFI’s long-term success hinges on overcoming whale selling, governance scrutiny, and delivering on its promised DeFi platform, which has not yet launched.