NextFin News - U.S. President Trump’s personal fortune has surged by an estimated $660 million following a series of previously undisclosed private token sales by World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance venture closely tied to his family. According to a Bloomberg report published Tuesday, the project quietly offloaded 5.9 billion WLFI tokens to private accredited investors after its public fundraising rounds concluded earlier this year. These private transactions, which occurred away from the public eye, have significantly bolstered the President’s crypto-derived wealth even as the project faces mounting criticism over transparency and governance.
The influx of capital stems from a revenue-sharing agreement where 75% of net token sale proceeds flow to DT Marks DEFI LLC, an entity affiliated with U.S. President Trump and his family members. While the project initially raised $550 million through public rounds between late 2024 and January 2025, the subsequent private sales of 5.9 billion tokens provided a massive secondary windfall. On the secondary market, the WLFI token was trading at $0.06764 on the OKX exchange as of Tuesday, reflecting a 2.5% decline over the last 24 hours. The discrepancy between the private sale terms and the public market price has sparked frustration among early retail backers who were not informed of the additional supply entering the market.
The analysis of these "quiet" sales was spearheaded by Muyao Shen and the Bloomberg crypto reporting team, who have tracked the Trump family’s digital asset ventures since their inception. Shen, a veteran crypto journalist known for deep-dive forensic analysis of blockchain transactions, has frequently highlighted the unconventional structure of World Liberty Financial. Her reporting suggests that while the project was marketed as a populist alternative to traditional banking, its financial architecture heavily favors the founding family through private placements that are typically reserved for institutional "whales" rather than the general public.
This concentrated wealth accumulation has drawn sharp rebukes from within the crypto industry. Justin Sun, an early backer of the project and founder of the Tron network, recently accused World Liberty Financial of concealing restrictive features within its smart contracts. According to Sun, the project maintains a "blacklist" capability that allows it to freeze or seize user assets at will—a feature he claims contradicts the core decentralized ethos of the blockchain. These allegations, combined with the news of undisclosed sales, have contributed to the token’s recent volatility and its struggle to maintain a stable valuation above its initial listing price.
From a regulatory standpoint, the private sales to accredited investors likely fall under specific SEC exemptions, yet the lack of disclosure to public token holders raises questions about fiduciary responsibility. Critics argue that the "white-label" nature of these sales allowed the Trump family to monetize the project’s brand without the immediate price impact that a public dump would cause. However, the eventual discovery of the 5.9 billion additional tokens has created a supply overhang that continues to weigh on the market cap, which currently sits at approximately $2.15 billion.
The financial success of the venture for the Trump family stands in contrast to the experience of many retail investors who purchased tokens during the initial hype. While the President’s crypto portfolio has expanded by hundreds of millions, the broader WLFI ecosystem remains under pressure from technical concerns and a lack of clear utility for the token beyond governance. The project’s reliance on private capital to drive its most significant gains suggests a shift away from its original "DeFi for the people" narrative toward a more traditional private equity model, albeit one executed on a blockchain.
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