This pressure prompted a 47 million WLFI token burn to reduce supply and stabilize prices. The move represented just 0.19% of circulating supply but was paired with a proposal for buyback-and-burn programs to reward long-term holders. Despite briefly peaking at $0.331, WLFI fell over 27% as short sellers weighed heavily on the price. At the same time, a major unlock boosted the Trump family’s holdings to an estimated $5 billion, which only intensified concerns about conflicts of interest. Additionally, another Trump-linked company, American Bitcoin, prepares to go public under ticker ABTC.
WLFI Supply Reduced
The Trump family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, took its first steps to address mounting pressure on its token’s price by initiating a burn of its native WLFI token. On-chain data revealed that 47 million tokens were permanently removed from circulation on Sept. 2, and the tokens were sent to a burn wallet according to records on Etherscan.
While token burns are a common strategy in the crypto world to reduce supply and potentially boost value, the move still only removed about 0.19% of the circulating supply, as around 24.66 billion WLFI tokens—roughly 25% of the original 100 billion—have already been unlocked.
The launch of WLFI earlier this week quickly attracted a lot of attention as early investors gained the ability to sell their holdings. The token briefly surged to a peak of $0.331 before entering a steady decline, now down over 27% from its launch-day high and trading at just over 22 cents.
WLFI’s all-time price action (Source: CoinMarketCap)
Most of the pressure on the price appears to come from short sellers, something the burn program and a newly proposed buyback-and-burn mechanism aim to counter. World Liberty Financial suggested on Tuesday that protocol-owned liquidity fees could be redirected to support future burns, which the team claims will reward long-term holders while also phasing out participants uninterested in the project’s sustained growth. Early community sentiment in the proposal’s comment section has been supportive, though an official vote is still pending.
The launch, however, also triggered commentary about the state of the crypto market. Kevin Rusher, founder of real-world asset lending ecosystem RAAC, said the hype surrounding WLFI proves how the industry still struggles with speculation over substance. He explained that institutional adoption, not celebrity-backed tokens, will determine the sector’s future credibility and stability.
At the same time, Mangirdas Ptašinskas of Galxe pointed to the sudden spike in Ethereum gas fees during WLFI’s launch—reportedly sending a $200 transfer cost to $50—as a stark reminder of infrastructure challenges still facing Web3. For all the short-term buzz, the WLFI episode proved to many that crypto’s maturity and mainstream adoption are still very much a work in progress.
WLFI Unlock Boosts Trump Fortune
Meanwhile, an entity tied to US President Donald Trump’s family now controls roughly $5 billion worth of World Liberty Financial’s WLFI after the major unlock earlier this week. According to the project’s website, DT Marks DEFI LLC and certain Trump family members collectively held 22.5 billion WLFI tokens. On Monday, World Liberty Financial unlocked an additional 24.6 billion tokens as part of its plan to establish an initial circulating supply.
WLFI supply dynamics (Source: World Liberty Financial)
World Liberty previously indicated that founder holdings, including those of Trump and his sons Donald Trump Jr., Barron Trump, and Eric Trump, would remain locked. However, the unlock effectively valued the family’s stake at around $5 billion based on prevailing market prices.
Trump and his sons have openly endorsed the company, which launched in September of 2024, which tied the project to his presidential campaign. Alongside this initiative, the family has been involved in other crypto ventures like Trump’s meme coin, Official Trump (TRUMP), and a Bitcoin mining company, American Bitcoin. Critics, particularly among lawmakers, warned that these ventures could represent potential conflicts of interest if they intersect with government policy.
The New Yorker previously reported that Trump personally profited about $2.4 billion from crypto ventures since 2022, even before the token unlock. These gains include revenue from World Liberty Financial, profits from American Bitcoin, and his meme coin, along with an estimated $243 million from crypto-related deals with the United Arab Emirates and roughly $1.3 billion connected to Bitcoin holdings at Trump Media and Technology Group.
Meanwhile, American Bitcoin, the Trump family’s mining firm, is set to go public after its merger with Gryphon Digital. The deal features a reverse five-to-one stock split and will see the combined entity trade under the ticker ABTC. The venture also attracted investment from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, co-founders of Gemini.
