- World Liberty Financial (WLFI) price has dropped 20% after its debut despite strong trading volumes.
- Trump family is pushing WLFI token as the backbone of their new DeFi ecosystem.
- Unlock fears and governance doubts weigh on investor sentiment.
World Liberty Financial’s WLFI token made its highly anticipated debut on major exchanges on September 1, pulling the crypto market’s spotlight squarely onto the Trump family’s DeFi venture.
But while the launch generated enormous excitement, massive WLFI token unlocks and profit-taking quickly tempered early gains, leaving traders cautious about what lies ahead.
WLFI token trading kicked off with a bang
Binance, Upbit, Gate and other leading exchanges began listing WLFI token on the first day, opening at around $0.30 before slipping to $0.25 within hours.
Despite the slight decline post-launch, the token’s fully diluted valuation (FDV) still pushed close to $30 billion, with market capitalisation topping $8 billion on launch day.
The debut also sparked heavy derivatives activity, with open interest in WLFI futures climbing above $1 billion, and trading volume surging more than 200% to surpass $8 billion.
While such figures underscore the intense curiosity around the project, they also reveal how speculative trading has overtaken fundamentals in shaping WLFI’s early price swings.
Token unlock sparks jitters
Alongside its market debut, WLFI saw one of the largest token unlocks in recent memory.
Out of its 100 billion total supply, 24.67 billion tokens entered circulation on day one. Of these, 10 billion were earmarked for the ecosystem team, 7.7 billion for Alt5 Sigma’s treasury operations, 2.8 billion for liquidity and marketing, and 4 billion for early investors.
The heavy allocation raised fears of immediate sell-offs by insiders, including Trump family members.
But while traders worry that any early moves by large holders could trigger cascading liquidations in futures markets, only 20% of the total supply is tradable at launch, while the remaining 80% remains locked under undisclosed schedules.
Trump family ties shape narrative
Once dismissed as a derivative of Aave, World Liberty Financial (WLFI) has evolved into what its backers call a DeFi “super app.”
The Trump family’s involvement has been central to this evolution.
Donald Trump Jr. described the token as “not just a meme coin” but the governance backbone of a financial ecosystem aimed at reshaping how money moves.
Big day – @WorldLibertyFi just launched the $WLFI token. This isn’t some meme coin, it’s the governance backbone of a real ecosystem changing how money moves. Freedom + finance + America FIRST. Home T