Nikolas Sargeant
The Trump family's cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, has implemented an emergency token burn strategy, permanently removing 47 million WLFI tokens from circulation in an attempt to halt the project's declining market performance. The burn, executed on Wednesday according to blockchain data, represents 0.19% of the token's current circulating supply and marks a desperate measure to restore investor confidence after the token's rocky public debut.
WLFI began trading on secondary markets for the first time this Monday, initially reaching a peak of $0.331 before entering a sustained downward spiral. The token has since lost over 31% of its value from its opening high, currently trading at just over 23 cents despite early investor enthusiasm. The decline has persisted even as approximately 24.66 billion tokens, representing just over 25% of the original 100 billion supply, have been unlocked for trading.
World Liberty Financial has proposed implementing a comprehensive token buyback and burn program using protocol-owned liquidity fees, arguing that such measures would "increase the relative ownership percentage of committed long-term holders" while removing tokens held by short-term speculators. The proposal has received majority approval from community respondents, though an official vote has yet to take place.
Industry experts are viewing the WLFI launch as symptomatic of broader market immaturity, with critics arguing that celebrity-backed tokens and speculative trading continue to damage trust in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The token's debut also caused Ethereum gas fees to spike dramatically, highlighting ongoing scalability challenges as the crypto space prepares for mainstream adoption.
Background: From $550M Fundraise to Trading Launch
World Liberty Financial's token burn strategy comes after the project successfully raised $550 million through two public token sales, establishing itself as one of the most well-funded DeFi ventures of 2024. The Trump-backed project initially raised $300 million in October 2024, selling 20 billion WLFI tokens at $0.015 each, followed by a second sale in January 2025 that raised $250 million at $0.05 per token—representing a 230% price increase from the initial offering.
The transition to public trading followed overwhelming community approval, with 99.94% of token holders supporting the move from a closed ecosystem to public market participation. High-profile investors including Tron founder Justin Sun, who invested $30 million, and Web3Port with a $10 million commitment, provided additional credibility to the project before its market debut. However, the current price decline suggests that retail market sentiment has diverged significantly from the institutional confidence demonstrated during the private fundraising phases.
