World Liberty Financial Governance Shift Squeezes Early Investors

The Trump family's flagship crypto project is back under pressure. World Liberty Financial, the DeFi venture where a Trump business entity holds 60% ownership and collects 75% of all token sale revenue, has put forward a governance change that is drawing sharp criticism from its own investor base.

The proposal targets unlocked WLFI tokens, roughly 20% of the total supply currently in free circulation. Under the new terms, holders must stake those tokens for a minimum of 180 days to keep their voting rights. A 2% annual yield in WLFI tokens is offered in return, though the project team reserves the right to change that rate.

As Business account posted on X, the Trump family's flagship crypto project is once again facing questions, with the governance proposal landing at a moment when investor patience is already stretched thin.

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Early Investors Caught Between Lock-Up and Losses

The WLFI token has lost more than 50% of its value since portions of the supply began trading. Critics say the staking lock is designed to suppress selling pressure rather than improve governance quality. The project team pushed back on that reading in a March 5 statement, arguing governance decisions should reflect long-term participants, not short-term speculators.

Voting opened March 5 and runs through March 12. Of roughly 100 billion total tokens, only 1.4 billion have participated in the vote so far. About 99% of those votes support the proposal. But that figure tells only part of the story.

WLFI investor Morten Christensen said publicly he plans to vote against it. He told followers the project carries an uncomfortable level of uncertainty for participants, a striking contrast to the near-unanimous tally at the surface.

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The staking proposal is not arriving in isolation. It follows months of congressional scrutiny over WLFI's foreign investment ties. Representative Ro Khanna opened a House investigation after reports that lieutenants of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan signed a deal to acquire a 49% stake in the project for $500 million just days before Trump's inauguration. That deal was not disclosed publicly by World Liberty Financial.

The Stablecoin Sitting at the Center

USD1, the project's stablecoin, has grown to $3.4 billion in circulation since its March 2025 launch. Its reach now touches Binance through a reported $2 billion transaction that used USD1, a detail Khanna's investigation specifically flagged. The stablecoin also expanded to Solana through partnerships with Bonk and Raydium.

Senator Elizabeth Warren went further. During a Senate Banking Committee hearing, she urged the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to block WLFI's application for a national trust bank charter. She described the situation as potentially one of the worst corruption scandals in American presidential history. OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould responded that applications would be reviewed under standard procedures, without political influence.

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The Trump family's total crypto income crossed $800 million in 2025 across its ventures. About $463 million of that came from WLFI token sales alone. By December 2025, proceeds from the project topped $1 billion, while unsold tokens held by the Trump family and affiliates were valued at approximately $3 billion.

The project argues Trump does not manage daily operations. Those fall to co-founders including Zach Witkoff and Zachary Folkman. Critics contend that argument holds little weight when a sitting president's name and financial interest are directly attached to the venture.

A token buyback program passed with 99.8% community support. It uses liquidity fees collected on Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana to purchase and permanently burn tokens. The project said it plans to explore additional protocol revenue to fund ongoing buybacks. No impact estimates were included in the proposal.

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