On April 1, local time, the cryptocurrency 'World Liberty Financial (WLF)' led by U.S. President Donald Trump and his family made its market debut. Although the price surged and then fell on its first day of trading, it is reported that the Trump family secured hundreds of billions of won in cash through pre-planned internal transactions. Local media criticized the business activities of a sitting president's family as an unprecedented conflict of interest.
According to Bloomberg on that day, the '$WLFI' token issued by WLF was listed simultaneously on major global cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance and OKX. WLFI soared from around 20 cents to 40 cents immediately after trading began. However, it subsequently faced a sell-off, closing at the level of 22 to 24 cents.
Despite poor transaction performance, the Trump family secured a significant 'accounting asset.' The Trump family holds about 22.5% of the total issued amount of 100 billion tokens, or 22.5 billion tokens. This amounts to approximately $5 billion (about 7 trillion won) based on the closing price that day. This value exceeds the real estate asset value the Trump family has built over decades, including hotels and golf courses.
Regardless of the $WLFI transaction performance, the Trump family has arranged a structure to secure cash. WLF formed a special relationship with Nasdaq-listed Alt5 Sigma before the token listing. WLF co-founder Jack Witkoff became chairman of Alt5 in August, and Trump's second son Eric Trump joined the board of directors. Those who secured management control decided that Alt5 would invest $1.5 billion in purchasing WLFI tokens. According to the agreement, 75% of the revenue generated from this transaction will be paid to the Trump family's owned company, 'DT Marks DEFI.' The New York Times estimated that this amount could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
Local U.S. media and political circles criticized the situation in which a sitting president's family is directly engaged in cryptocurrency business, and the president signs a bill to ease related regulations as a 'serious conflict of interest.' Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren and others warned that 'the financial interests of the presidential family could directly affect cryptocurrency regulation.' However, the White House denied the related allegations.
John Reed Stark, a former lawyer for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), criticized, 'In the past, such relationships were hidden, but now the presidential family is celebrating it like a badge of honor.' In fact, Trump Jr. celebrated the WLFI listing on social media that day, stating, 'It's not a meme coin. It's the backbone of a real ecosystem changing how money moves.'