Review of World Liberty Financial (WLFI): Understanding the Trumps' DeFi Project

One of the hallmarks of Donald Trump's election campaign was attracting the voices of the crypto community through a number of initiatives aimed at creating a favorable climate for digital assets. One of them was the World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform linked to the Trump family. WLFI has attracted the attention of both the community and traditional investors and could be one of the tools for the newly elected US president to influence the crypto market.

Coinpaper's editorial team has figured out how World Liberty Financial is organized, what goals this project pursues and what it can offer to ordinary users.

What is World Liberty Financial (WLFI)?

World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is a DeFi platform launched in 2024 with the support of Donald Trump and his family. 

The project's website states that World Liberty Financial is ”leading a financial revolution” to remove the monopoly of traditional institutions. The project's white paper (Gold Paper) indicates that the protocol should also ”strengthen the status of the dollar.” However, there is no mention of specific purpose and functions.  

Along with the launch of the project, the team also introduced the WLFI token, which serves as a governance function. The owners of these tokens have the right to vote on decisions affecting the development of the platform, although the Gold Paper also states that the protocol is managed by WLFI, a Dellaware-registered company;

World Liberty Financial has attracted the attention of big investors including Justin Sun, raising at least $300 million through token sales, according to Reuters.

It's worth noting that World Liberty Financial's code is almost entirely copied from Dough Finance's lending protocol, and the WLFI team includes Dough creators Zach Folkman and Chase Herro. In July 2024, Dough Finance was attacked using flash loans, losing $1.8 million, and then ceased operations.

Key features of WLFI

World Liberty Financial is integrated into the Ethereum ecosystem, with over $58 billion in smart contracts as of this writing locked;

The project is being developed as a service on top of one of the leading lending protocols, Aave V3, and could potentially open up its own vaults where participants can borrow and lend funds without the use of traditional banks. 

In fact, WLFI aims to generate a portion of Aave's revenue through its own user base.

WLFI token

A key feature of World Liberty Financial is the inalienable WLFI management token. By not being able to sell or transfer the asset, the model deprives holders of direct financial gain, which is rather atypical for DeFi projects. The Gold Paper emphasizes the following aspects:

• Token holders can make proposals, discuss them, and vote for protocol changes, marketing initiatives, and the introduction of new features;
• no one can hold more than 5% of the votes, regardless of the number held by WLFI;
• voting goes through an automated Token Voting Module system that is maintained by the WLFI. 

It is important to understand that while the protocol uses decentralized governance mechanisms, the project is not a DAO. Token holders participate in the governance of the protocol, but do not control World Liberty Financial itself. Therefore, WLFI is neither a share in the company nor a financial asset.

WLFI Tokenomics

The WLFI token belongs to the ERC-20 standard and is deployed on the Ethereum network. As mentioned above, its key feature is its inalienability, which emphasizes its role as a management token rather than a speculative or investment instrument.

According to the Gold Paper, the total issuance is 100 billion WLFI, which is allocated as follows:

• 35% is allocated for sale. These tokens will be distributed among the tokensale participants;
• 32.5% will be used to support initiatives related to the development of the WLFI ecosystem;
• 30% is reserved for early adopters;
• 2.5% is reserved for team and developer rewards.

But it's worth noting that this data differs from the tokenomics presented on launch day. 

WLFI Tokensale

The WLFI token sale started on October 16, 2024 at a price of $0.015 per token. At this stage, participation was limited to accredited investors from the United States.

On January 20, 2025, the day of Donald Trump's inauguration, World Liberty Financial announced the successful completion of the first stage of the tokensale, distributing 20% of the total volume of tokens. This was followed by a decision to sell another 5% of the offering, but already at a price of $0.05, i.e. 230% more expensive.

At the time of writing, the tokens are not available for purchase on the official website of the project.

To get WLFI tokens, you just needed to connect an EVM-compatible wallet, such as MetaMask, on the project's website. Then go to the Token Sale tab, go through the KYC procedure and pay with ETH, USDC, USDT or WETH.

World Liberty Financial  ecosystem in 2025

As of April 2025, World Liberty Financial has still not introduced any product or service. The main focus is on the sale of WLFI and investments in various digital assets. 

According to the Arkham platform, World Liberty Financial held several dozen tokens totaling $83 million in its portfolio on April 2, 2025. However, on the same day, the team made a transfer of its core positions, valued at $316 million, to the Coinbase Prime platform, which affected the display of the onchain balance.

It is likely that the accumulated assets will serve as a financial basis for launching new products and providing liquidity. It is also possible that WLFI purchases may demonstrate the Trump administration's attitude to certain projects in the context of the ”made in the USA” concept.

Trump's influence 

The perception of World Liberty Financial as a project of Donald Trump is a two-pronged stick. On the one hand, his fame contributes to the wide media coverage of WLFI, attracts the attention of large investors and builds trust among a certain part of the audience;

On the other hand, direct association with a political figure of such magnitude automatically creates additional risks for WLFI, including increased regulatory scrutiny, the correlation between Trump's reputation and the platform's success, and heightened sensitivity to political events.

In addition, Donald Trump and his affiliates control 75% of World Liberty Financial's revenue and own 22.5 billion WLFI tokens.

This poses several potential threats, such as centralization of governance, conflict of interest, and insider influence from large investors. In the long term, it is the balance between governability and decentralization that will determine whether WLFI can become a sustainable player in the DeFi market.

Benefits of the project

Integration with the Ethereum ecosystem, participation of well-known investors and political context have made World Liberty Financial a notable player in the crypto industry. Among the main advantages of the project are: 

Excited media attention and recognition

The project has received significant publicity due to the support of Donald Trump and his family. This helps to increase brand awareness and build trust among potential users and partners.

Investment from Web3 big names

WLFI has attracted a $75 million investment from Tron founder Justin Sun. The participation of such a recognizable personality in the crypto community may increase the credibility of the project and attract the attention of other major players.

Successful tokensale.

The dynamics of the WLFI token sale demonstrated high investor interest, even though there is no possibility to sell the token in the future. Active participation in the tokensale may indicate the potential willingness of buyers to support the development of the ecosystem.

DeFi integration potential

WLFI is actually part of the Ethereum ecosystem and plans to use Aave V3 to create DeFi products.

Flaws and Risks 

Let's take a look at the key risks and potential vulnerabilities that investors and users of World Liberty Financial should consider.

Technical glitches 

During the initial sale of WLFI tokens, there were technical issues that limited investors' access to participate. Such incidents could negatively impact the credibility of the project, especially considering that the platform has not yet faced a ”real” workload due to a lack of product. 

Political context and reputational risks

The project's direct association with Donald Trump can be both an advantage and a potential risk. This association makes the project vulnerable to unrest in the political environment and possible regulatory changes, especially in the US.

Centralization of governance 

Despite the use of Gnosis Safe multi-signature wallets and voting share restrictions, actual control over project management may remain in the hands of a small group of individuals acting through WLFI. 

Unproven financial strength.

WLFI is a new project with no product or operating history. Its success depends largely on market conditions, the level of competition in the DeFi sector, and its ability to attract and retain liquidity, which is untested.

What do market experts say about the project?

Experts' reaction to World Liberty Financial remains ambiguous. Supporters of the project emphasize the potential of WLFI in DeFi and the team's strategic plans.

Thus, investor Mike Dudas expressed optimism about the prospects of the platform, having invested $145,000 in WLFI tokens. He said he is attracted by the vision and strategies proposed by the project's advisors in the context of DeFi's development.

Mac Brennan, co-founder of MarginFi, also spoke positively about the project. He expressed support for WLFI's initiatives and noted that he has high expectations for the project.

However, the resource 99bitcoins characterized World Liberty Financial as a speculative project with a vague concept of a DeFi platform. They also expressed concerns about the level of expertise of the development team, which they believe makes WLFI a risky investment with a low chance of sustained success.

Conclusions

World Liberty Financial has an ambitious goal of making decentralized financial services more accessible by combining blockchain solutions with the support of trusted partners. Integration with the Aave protocol and the participation of prominent investors set the stage for widespread adoption and scaling of the protocol. 

However, despite the significant potential, the project faces a number of challenges. These include technical difficulties, which became apparent at the tokenization stage, ethical issues related to the concentration of assets in the hands of Donald Trump's affiliates, and the lack of a real product.

So far, WLFI looks like a project with big goals and equally big opportunities, but also with a set of risks to consider when making investment decisions.