WLFI launch countdown: Sun Yuchen and other early investors profited more than tenfold, while Aave's profit sharing proposal was controversial.

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a cryptocurrency project backed by the Trump family, is set to launch on the Ethereum mainnet on September 1, with early investors seeing significant returns—up to 14x for those who bought at $0.015 per token and 4.2x for the $0.05 round.
The project has raised approximately $550 million through two public sale rounds, with notable investments from Tron founder Justin Sun, who contributed $75 million across two rounds.
A controversy has emerged regarding a previously approved proposal where AaveDAO was set to receive 7% of WLFI's total token supply (7 billion tokens) and 20% of protocol fees in exchange for supporting a lending instance. While Aave insists the agreement is valid, WLFI has denied the arrangement, leading to community debate and concerns over contractual integrity.
The token economics allocate 35% for sales, 32.5% for community incentives, 30% to initial supporters, and 2.5% to the team and advisors. Market makers include DWF Labs and other entities, with the Trump-associated DT Marks DEFI LLC initially entitled to 75% of net income, though its stake has since reduced to around 40%.
The dispute highlights challenges in on-chain governance, where even approved proposals may not be implemented due to shifting project priorities and negotiations between involved parties.

By Nancy, PANews

Another high-profile project is about to debut: World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a crypto project backed by the Trump family, is about to launch on the Ethereum mainnet. Its sky-high market valuation and impressive early returns have quickly made it a hot topic in the crypto world. However, WLFI has also been embroiled in a controversy surrounding its proposed profit-sharing partnership with Aave, sparking market discussion and reflection.

WLFI will soon be listed on Ethereum, and early investors can get up to 14 times the return

On August 23rd, WLFI announced its upcoming launch on the Ethereum mainnet on September 1st, where users will be able to claim and trade tokens. Tokens held by early backers (in the $0.015 and $0.05 rounds) will unlock 20% of their tokens, with the remaining 80% to be determined by community voting. Tokens held by the founding team, advisors, and partners will not be unlocked at launch.

Following the launch announcement, exchanges like Binance, OKX, and Hyperliquiquit announced the launch of pre-market trading for the WLFI/USDT perpetual contract. The contract price surged to $0.55 that day, corresponding to a fully liquid valuation of approximately $55 billion. However, the price subsequently fell rapidly, plummeting by over 60% to approximately $0.20 in pre-market trading.

WLFI was announced by the Trump family in September 2024 and has since conducted two public fundraising rounds. The first pre-sale began on October 15, 2024, when WLFI announced the release of 20 billion tokens to whitelisted investors at $0.015 per token. However, market response was tepid, with approximately 610 million WLFI tokens sold on the first day (with 19.4 billion remaining for sale), generating only $9.15 million in sales. Due to the weak market response, WLFI submitted its application the following month, drastically reducing its fundraising target by 90%, aiming to raise only $30 million.

However, after Trump won the US election, WLFI token sales began to accelerate, ultimately selling out all 20 billion tokens by January 20, 2025, generating approximately $300 million in revenue. During this period, Tron founder Justin Sun invested $30 million and $45 million in two rounds, becoming the largest individual investor in each round and also serving as an advisor to WLFI.

On January 20, 2025, coinciding with Trump's inauguration, WLFI launched its second round of pre-sales, announcing the release of an additional 5% of the token supply and raising the price to $0.05. Compared to the first round, this round of pre-sales was enthusiastically received, selling out on March 14th after just two months, successfully achieving its fundraising goal of $250 million.

According to the WLFI token economics, the total supply is 100 billion, of which 35% is used for token sales, 32.5% is used for community growth and incentives, 30% is allocated to initial supporters, and the remaining 2.5% is allocated to the team and advisors. Judging from the current public offering progress, WLFI has completed 25% of the total supply, with 10% remaining for sale.

Based on the current pre-market price of $0.21, investors who invested at $0.015 have seen a profit of approximately 14 times their original value, while those who invested at $0.05 have seen a profit of approximately 4.2 times their original value. Furthermore, according to on-chain analyst Ai Yi, participants in the public offering of WLFI's top 10 addresses have invested a total of $73.08 million, holding 4.63% of the total token supply, or 4.64 billion tokens. At the current price, these investors' TGE will unlock tokens worth over $190 million.

In addition, the details of WLFI's market maker have been revealed. According to Aiyi's analysis, DWF Labs is undoubtedly the WLFI market maker, and there is a high probability that other market makers will also be involved. Data shows that Web3Port received 200 million WLFI tokens in a strategic round (costing $0.05), DWF Labs received 250 million tokens in a strategic round (costing $0.1), and ALT5 Sigma Corporation acquired 7.5 billion tokens through an equity acquisition (costing $0.2).

It is worth noting that DT Marks DEFI LLC, which is associated with the Trump family, is entitled to 75% of the net income from the agreement without assuming any liability. During the public offering, DT Marks DEFI LLC's stake has dropped from its original 75% to approximately 40%.

The implementation of the 7% token allocation proposal is in doubt, with WLFI and Aave each holding their own views.

While the high returns for WLFI's early investors sparked heated discussion, rumors that Aave might acquire 7% of WLFI's total token supply also sparked controversy within the community. The WLFI team denied this, but Aave insisted the agreement remained valid, with both parties maintaining their respective views.

The incident dates back to before the official launch of WLFI. At that time, WLFI had revealed plans to provide crypto lending services on the Ethereum blockchain and stated in its official Telegram channel that they were working with Aave, emphasizing that this was not a malicious fork, but rather a desire to create an innovative platform to promote the development of the DeFi industry.

In early December 2024, WLFI submitted its first community proposal, planning to deploy an Aave v3 lending instance of the WLFI protocol on the Ethereum mainnet, initially supporting USDC, USDT, ETH, and WBTC, managed by the Aave risk management team. The proposal's primary goal was to attract first-time DeFi users and raise awareness of both WLFI and the Aave brand. In return, the proposal stipulated that AaveDAO would receive 20% of the protocol fees generated by the WLFI Aave v3 instance and approximately 7% of the total WLFI token supply (7 billion tokens) to participate in WLFI's future governance, liquidity mining, and platform decentralization. The revenue distribution plan was executed via a trustless smart contract, with a proportional distribution between the AaveDAO and WLFI treasury addresses. The proposal was approved on December 13, 2024, with a 100% approval rate.

With the upcoming launch of WLFI, this proposal has recently been revived by the community, directly driving up the price of AAVE. Based on current market valuations, the Aave treasury could receive billions of dollars worth of WLFI tokens, making it one of the potential biggest beneficiaries of this cycle.

However, this good news was denied by members of the WLFI Wallet team, who also responded to Wu Blockchain, calling the statement false and "fake news." In response, Aave founder Stani.eth insisted that the agreement remains valid, emphasizing that the proposal was created and officially approved by the WLFI team.

As the news spread, the crypto community debated the matter, with differing views. Crypto influencer @0x_Todd pointed out that this was WLFI's genesis proposal (the first proposal), with votes exceeding the required number by seven times, and a support rate exceeding 99%. If even the genesis proposal isn't ultimately fulfilled, it's deeply un-DeFi. Centralized governance is no longer DeFi, and breach of contract should be banished from the DeFi fold.

KOL @Luyaoyuan1 warned that WLFI may be at risk of default. He pointed out that similar SPK projects have historically promised returns that have shrunk significantly, and Aave has been deceived many times. He supports Aave in suing WLFI if there is a default.

dForce founder Mindao Zhi believes the initial "20% revenue share + 7% token distribution" clause was ill-designed and misaligned with WLFI's actual brand and market value. He speculates that the scenario will likely involve WLFI completely abandoning Aave, which would invalidate the previous contract. Meanwhile, WLFI will significantly reduce its token distribution and use it to incentivize USD1 lending and minting. This creates a balanced balance between the two, effectively serving as a subsidy for targeted stablecoin minting operations.

"The previous WLFI public sale was not smooth, and outsiders suspected it of being a scam, which put Aave in a stronger position in the partnership. However, with rising market enthusiasm, the passage of the Stablecoin Genius Act, and Trump's personal financial disclosure of 15.7 billion WLFI, its value has increased, making WLFI reluctant to give Aave as much of the pie as before." @wenser2010 analyzed that Aave may need to make concessions and reduce its original share, or WLFI may promote new proposals to redistribute the profits. As for how long this will take, it depends on the mediation and negotiations between the two parties.

However, Alex Xu, research partner at Mint Ventures, pointed out that WLFI initially intended to create an Aave-based lending market, but later decided that lending was too unappealing (despite a proposal for a token and profit-sharing plan), and instead pivoted to developing a stablecoin. With this in mind, the partnership between the two parties no longer exists, and Aave is not mentioned in WLFI's official gold book.

While the dispute over WLFI's partnership with Aave remains unresolved, it has once again exposed the limitations of on-chain governance. While on-chain governance offers advantages such as transparency and decentralization, even if a proposal is approved by the community, its actual implementation still depends on the will and negotiation of all parties involved.