A Bloomberg investigation uncovered that the Trump family earned approximately $1.55 billion from sales of the cryptocurrency World Liberty Financial (WLFI), significantly increasing their wealth through previously undisclosed transactions. Meanwhile, early retail investors face limited access to their WLFI holdings, which have suffered a steep decline in market value.
The investigation, leveraging data from intelligence platform Tokenomist.ai, found that after two public fundraising rounds, World Liberty Financial executed private sales of 5.9 billion additional WLFI tokens to accredited investors. These transactions, worth hundreds of millions, were not disclosed to the broader investment community. This amount adds on top of the $550 million raised from earlier public token sales.
According to World Liberty Financial’s governance disclosures, DT Marks DEFI LLC—a Trump-related entity—receives 75% of proceeds from WLFI token sales after deducting reserves and expenses. Furthermore, Trump-affiliated parties directly hold 22.5 billion WLFI tokens. World Liberty confirmed these private sales but declined to reveal the identities of the buyers or the destination of funds.
The project was co-founded by the Trump and Witkoff families, with Zach Witkoff as CEO. Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff—who serves as a presidential envoy—were publicly listed as co-founder emeritus on the project’s website, though the references have since been removed. Company representatives said the site undergoes regular updates.
In stark contrast to the gains by insiders, early retail investors remain locked out of about 80% of their token holdings. WLFI’s token price dropped sharply to under six cents, down approximately 85% from its peak near 46 cents. There remains no clear mechanism for public investors to exit their positions as the market has turned decisively against them.
Concerns about conflicts of interest surfaced, with some experts describing the arrangement as one where the Trump family benefits financially while blocking other investors from recovering or profiting. Additionally, high-profile investor Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain, filed a lawsuit against the project in federal court alleging extortion and attempts to unlawfully seize his tokens. The WLFI co-founders have denied the allegations.