Written by: Wenser
For Trump, 2025 is the year to embark on a "second career spring"; for the Trump family's crypto project WLFI, 2025 is the "midsummer."
This crypto project, which began in September 2024, completed two rounds of public fundraising, three large financing rounds, a token launch, the introduction of the stablecoin USD1, and the establishment of the DAT treasury public company, all within just one year. However, behind these achievements lies more controversy: initially, Sun Yuchen's extravagant investment of $30 million was questioned as "political donations," followed by the launch of the TRUMP token, the trading ban period after the WLFI launch, and USD1 being designated as the "official" currency for Binance's $2 billion investment. The entanglement with Trump is not the only layer of "political connection" surrounding WLFI and its team; it is also intertwined with countless insider stories and controversies. On January 30, the "WLFI public fundraising of $550 million" will mark its one-year anniversary. Let's review the various controversies over the past year and clarify the facts and opinions involved.
Three Major Controversies of the Trump Family Crypto Project: WLFI Public Fundraising, TRUMP Meme Coin, and the Popularization of Stablecoin USD1
In 2025, the Trump family achieved a wealth increase of $1.4 billion through crypto assets, accounting for about one-fifth of their total net worth. During Trump's second term, the Trump family gained significant profits through their co-founded crypto platform World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the TRUMP Meme coin, and the Bitcoin mining company American Bitcoin Corp. (ABTC), among other new projects. Behind this immense wealth are three major controversies:
Controversy One: WLFI Public Fundraising as Political Donations
In October 2024, after completing the whitelist registration phase, WLFI officially launched its public fundraising at a price of $0.015 per token. However, due to multiple website crashes, although $5 million was raised within an hour, it still fell far short of the $300 million fundraising target. Subsequently, WLFI officials reduced the fundraising goal by 90% to just 10% of the original, amounting to $30 million.
In November 2024, Sun Yuchen announced a $30 million investment in WLFI through TRON DAO, becoming the largest investor in the project. Thus, despite official documents specifically mentioning that "the Trump family will receive 75% of WLFI's net income without bearing any responsibility," this round of financing concluded as scheduled.
Afterward, Sun Yuchen transformed from a "cryptocurrency practitioner" with significant gaps with U.S. official power to a "WLFI project advisor." This led to suspicions in the market that the WLFI public fundraising might be political donations, a sentiment that intensified after WLFI's second round of public fundraising and the launch of the TRUMP token.
Controversy Two: TRUMP as a Harvesting Tool
In January 2025, on the eve of Trump's inauguration as U.S. President, the TRUMP token, marketed as the "official Trump Meme coin," was officially launched, causing a stir in the market as countless individuals rushed in to realize their dreams of wealth (which indeed made many in the Chinese-speaking community rich).
However, ultimately, aside from the TRUMP token issuer making a staggering $320 million in fees within four months, approximately 800,000 wallets collectively lost $2 billion, with the average loss per wallet around $2,500, marking one of the largest "epic harvesting operations" in cryptocurrency history.
During this process, WLFI's second large-scale public fundraising also successfully concluded, attracting $550 million in funding: on January 20, WLFI sold 20 billion tokens, raising $300 million; that day, due to high demand for token sales, WLFI officials opened an additional 5% token sale, causing the price per token to rise from $0.015 to $0.05; ultimately, they successfully raised $250 million.
Thus, under the favorable stimuli of Trump's inauguration and WLFI's successful fundraising, TRUMP once again became the "money-making machine" and "harvesting tool" of the Trump family's crypto project.
It is worth mentioning that after the first public fundraising was completed, WLFI had already begun purchasing cryptocurrencies like ETH, and relying on Trump's and the Trump family's "political halo," WLFI's buying power gradually gained the ability to influence market liquidity and short-term speculative money, becoming a significant factor in "News Trading."
Controversy Three: USD1 as the "Stablecoin National Team"
In March 2025, WLFI officially announced plans to launch the stablecoin USD1. This stablecoin is 100% backed by short-term U.S. Treasury bonds, dollar deposits, and other cash equivalents, and will initially be issued on Ethereum (ETH) and Binance Smart Chain (BSC), aiming to provide a safe and efficient cross-border transaction tool for sovereign investors and institutions.
It is no exaggeration to say that the birth of USD1 carries a strong "Trump color," and subsequent events have corroborated this fact.
In early April 2025, significant events concerning WLFI and USD1 occurred:
First, the Trump family, through a new holding company WLF Holdco LLC, gained control of at least 60% of the DeFi project World Liberty Financial, replacing the two co-founders as the controlling party;
Second, after 10 hours of intense debate, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee passed the "Stablecoin Act." This act is said to establish a strict regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, requiring issuers to obtain federal or state approval and to be backed 1:1 by highly liquid assets. At that time, Democratic lawmakers expressed strong criticism, with Representative Maxine Waters calling it "an obvious manifestation of greed and corruption," questioning the conflict of interest posed by the president's push to relax crypto regulations while engaging in the industry. In July 2025, the U.S. Stablecoin Genius Act, derived from the Stablecoin Act, was successfully passed by both the House and Senate and signed into law by Trump.
Moreover, in the $2 billion investment by the UAE sovereign fund MGX in the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, USD1 was also selected as the "official stablecoin." This news was confirmed by WLFI co-founder and Trump's second son, Eric Trump.
Earlier this year, WLFI announced that its entity World Liberty Trust had submitted a de novo application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on January 7, seeking to obtain a national trust bank charter in the U.S. If approved, this trust bank would enable the direct issuance and custody of its USD1 stablecoin and gradually develop services such as crypto asset custody and stablecoin exchange, primarily targeting institutional clients. Although Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren had called for a pause in the review of this application, OCC regulatory officer Jonathan Gould emphasized that WLFI's application would undergo strict evaluation like other applications.
On January 23, WLFI co-founder Eric Trump stated that the issuance volume of the USD1 stablecoin (at $3.74 billion) had surpassed that of PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD (with an issuance volume of only $3.69 billion).
In summary, the "series of crypto-friendly policies" primarily promoted by Trump also indirectly provided policy support and regulatory convenience for the promotion, mainstream adoption, and institutionalization of the USD1 stablecoin.
Aside from the above controversies, what is even more intriguing are the various "stylish operations" of the Trump family's crypto project and insider sources in the crypto market.
The Trump Family's Insider Trading Code: The Ongoing "News Trading" and "TACO-style Trading"
As mentioned earlier, the Trump family's crypto project WLFI's operation of using public fundraising to buy various cryptocurrencies provides a natural breeding ground for "News Trading"; Trump's indecisive political stance and frequent tariff trade wars facilitate "TACO-style trading" and insider trading. Specifically, the related insider controversies include the following events:
Three Trump Dinners Spark External Criticism and Doubts
In April 2025, news of a VIP dinner for the first 220 TRUMP holders was officially announced, leading to a surge in on-chain transaction volume for TRUMP tokens, reaching $2.4 billion, with TRUMP's price rising 60% that day, on-chain activity increasing by 200%, and recording the "highest single-day trading volume on centralized exchanges since mid-February." Ultimately, this "token holding competition" ended with an average holding of nearly $4.8 million in TRUMP assets per person, with some TRUMP dinner invitees making substantial profits through token trading.
In May 2025, the "Crypto and AI Innovators Dinner" organized by the MAGA Inc. super PAC (Trump's campaign organization) was successfully held, with individual seats priced starting at $1.5 million. The two Trump dinners also drew criticism from several politicians, including Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who suggested that this might involve a "trade-off of presidential privileges for business investments."
In October 2025, Trump initiated a tech giant dinner under the pretext of "fundraising for the new White House banquet hall," with attendees including Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, executives from Coinbase and Ripple; representatives from companies like Meta, Google, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, and Microsoft also attended this dinner. This event was interpreted by the public as one of the examples of Trump "using power for personal gain."
In addition, the WLFI Foundation, due to its significant influence, has frequently purchased various altcoins, also seen as a market barometer, becoming a hotspot for news trading and insider trading.
Hyperliquid 50x Leverage Insider Whales Precisely Bet on Tariff Negatives and Market Rebounds
In February 2025, the "Hyperliquid 50x Leverage Whale" became a market focus. In less than a month, this address accurately timed Trump's favorable news, achieving "three victories":
First, the address made over $6.8 million by going long on BTC and ETH;
Second, the address opened a $13.45 million short position on BTC, initially incurring a small loss of $60,000, but ultimately turning it into a profit of nearly $300,000.
Third, the address went long on ETH with 50x leverage, ultimately making a profit of $2.15 million in less than 40 minutes. The total profit from the three trades amounted to $9.28 million.
Insider Whales Reappear: The October 11 Crash Rakes in $200 Million, Betting on "Trump Pardoning CZ" Ahead of the Market
In October 2025, the "Epic Crash of October 11" brought a historic level of large-scale liquidation to the market, but this chaos instead became a stage for insider whales to perform.
Among them, the address 0xb317D2BC2D3d2Df5Fa441B5bAE0AB9d8b07283ae opened a large short position with a nominal value of around $1.1 billion before the crash, making nearly $200 million in profit within a day; the address 0xc2a30212a8DdAc9e123944d6e29FADdCe994E5f2 achieved a terrifying record of 12 consecutive wins since October 14, accumulating profits of $12.634 million.
Hyperliquid insider whale Garrett Jin's associated account "bigwinner01" even bet on "Trump will pardon CZ" as early as September 28, 2025, with a total investment of $28,677.33, yielding a profit of $56,824.32, with a profit rate close to 100%. Behind Garrett Jin, on-chain detective Eyes previously investigated that his information sources may come from insiders who have long utilized White House rumors and policy forecasts for trading. The relevant information is said to have been relayed by aides close to the U.S. presidential team to a group of traders with privileged information, used to establish favorable positions in advance. The core individuals confirmed to be involved are Zach Witkoff and Chase Herro, and Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has also been suggested to possibly be involved.
Conclusion: WLFI is Both a Model Project and a Wealth-Making Machine
Aside from the above controversies, just before the WLFI token officially launched in September last year, it had a dispute with the established DeFi protocol Aave over early token distribution, revealing WLFI's ambition to be more than just a DeFi lending platform. With the addition of companies like WLFI's treasury public company ALT5 Sigma and Bitcoin mining company American Bitcoin Corp. (ABTC) to the "crypto battlefield," the role WLFI plays has become even more complex—now, it serves as both a model project for Trump's pro-crypto stance and a "crypto regulatory barometer" in the eyes of the crypto market.
After all, people might think—"If the president's family's crypto project is still thriving, the current U.S. government's crypto regulatory environment wouldn't suddenly turn bad." From this perspective, despite ongoing controversies and numerous doubts, WLFI and many of the Trump family's crypto projects have objectively accelerated the mainstreaming process of crypto. However, for members of the Trump family, the more important function of WLFI remains to serve as a "wealth-making machine" that allows them to earn substantial profits.
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