Trump Crypto Empire: $400M of World Liberty Financial’s Crypto Fund Now Belongs to His Family

World Liberty Financial has now raised $550 million in funds through the sale of its governance token. These tokens give individuals the ability to vote on the future policy and strategy changes of World Liberty Finance. However, as of now, the Trump family owns most of these funds, as does the firm itself. This change came in January, as the fundraising became more successful, the trump family increased their stake to 60%. This also meant the two co-founders, named Zak Folkman and Chase Herro, were no longer in control.

Where’s the Platform? Only 5% of $550M for Development

Based on the arrangements made between the business and the Trump family, they now gain 75% of the token sale revenue. This translates to $400 million of the $550 million, which will go to the Trump family’s share. Additionally, the Trumps will now also get 60% of the WLFI operation revenue. This still leaves the cut which the co-counders will get from this revenue. At such, this leaves only 5% of the $550 million funds raised to be used for creating the platform. 

Another noteworthy fact is that the WLFI tokens are only used for governance, and they can not be sold. As such, with Trump being the major shareholder and the inclusion of only governance tokens, WLF seems like a centralised entity. An associate professor at Georgetown University, Jim Angel, commented on this unusual financial agreement. “It’s hard for me to see any economic benefit to the owner of these tokens.” He also added that “the structure of the project pretty much excludes public investors or token holders from any meaningful financial participation.”

Trump’s Crypto Empire: Innovation or Insider Advantage?

There is also the worry of market manipulation, as Trump crypto policies can also benefit his own firm and crypto. However, the Trump organisation had announced in January that the businesses and assets would be held by Trump’s children. These would be in a trust, and Trump himself would not be directly involved. However, this comes at a time when Donald Trump has promised to make America the global leader in ceypro. Additionally, other than the Trump investment firm, his crypto, the TRUMP token, also creates conflicts of interest. 

Graph 1 – Provided by Prinz Magtulis, published on Chainalysis, April 1 2025

Based on Graph 1, the Trump cryptocurrency is mostly owned by crypto whales, making it even more suspicious. This is apparent as 70% of investors have spent more than $100,000 on buying the TRUMP token. Moreover, almost 50% had bought $1 million or higher. The identity of the biggest investors is hidden, and we don’t know why they have purchased such significant amounts.  However, others who commented mentioned the involvement of Trump as the main reason for their investment and confidence. 

Trump’s $749M and a Cloud of Controversy

This memecoin, which was created by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has generated more than $349 million in fees. Just from these two entities, the Trump state has gained almost $749 million, which creates doubts about intentional crypto deregulation. Ross Delston, a former U.S. banking regulator, commented on this and said, “You’ve got the guy in charge who is responsible for his own regulation.” Delston also mentioned that WLFI can also be a conflict of interest, as people can buy tokens to earn favors. 

Missing Features and Missing Team

As of now, the DeFi platform for the Trump investment firm has yet to be completed. There are only two Romanian developers who have been named as part of the team working on this platform.  One of them is Octavian Lojnita, who had worked on Herro and Folkman’s last project, which got defunct last year. According to a review by CertiK, the World Liberty Financial’s platform is still in development with functionalities missing or uncomplete.