{"id":91652,"date":"2026-05-12T11:31:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=91652"},"modified":"2026-05-12T11:31:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:31:31","slug":"trump-crypto-investigation-is-out-what-the-numbers-reveal-is-hard-to-ignore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=91652","title":{"rendered":"Trump Crypto Investigation Is Out \u2013 What The Numbers Reveal Is Hard To Ignore"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"><strong>A Bloomberg investigation <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bloomberglaw.com\/crypto\/quiet-token-sales-boosted-trump-crypto-wealth-by-660-million\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">published<\/a> May 12 has revealed that members of the Trump family made approximately $1.55 billion from sales of the crypto World Liberty Financial (WLFI), lifting their total fortune by roughly $660 million after accounting for previously undisclosed transactions \u2014 while early retail investors remain locked out of 80% of their holdings as the token trades near all-time lows.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">The investigation, based on analysis conducted by intelligence platform Tokenomist.ai at Bloomberg\u2019s request, found that World Liberty Financial sold an additional 5.9 billion tokens to accredited private investors after its two public fundraising rounds closed \u2014 transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars that had not been publicly disclosed or explained to the project\u2019s broader investor base. The sales came on top of the more than $550 million already raised through public rounds, according to Bloomberg\u2019s reporting.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold\">Who Received The Crypto Proceeds<\/h2>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Under World Liberty Financial\u2019s own governance disclosures, DT Marks DEFI LLC \u2014 a Trump-affiliated entity \u2014 is entitled to receive 75% of all WLFI token sale proceeds after agreed reserves and expenses, per the Bloomberg report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Trump-affiliated parties also hold 22.5 billion WLFI tokens directly. World Liberty confirmed the private sales to Bloomberg, describing them as \u201cwhite glove\u201d transactions with private purchasers, but declined to identify the buyers or disclose where the proceeds were directed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">The project was co-founded by members of the Trump and Witkoff families, with Zach Witkoff serving as chief executive. Both Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff \u2014 who serves as the president\u2019s special envoy to the Middle East \u2014 were listed as co-founder emeritus on the project\u2019s website, though the page listing co-founders was subsequently removed. A spokesperson said the company regularly updates its site, per Bloomberg\u2019s account.<\/p>\n<p>Investors Left Holding The Loss<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">The contrast between insider outcomes and retail investor experience is stark. Early buyers who participated in the public fundraising rounds remain locked out of 80% of their token holdings, with no mechanism to exit into a market that has moved sharply against them. WLFI traded below six cents this week, representing an approximately 85% decline from its all-time high of $0.46, according to BanklessTimes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University, told Bloomberg directly: the Trump family is profiting from a financial venture with glaring conflicts of interest in a way that blocks other investors from sharing in the gains.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">The project\u2019s highest-profile external backer has also turned adversarial. Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain and a major WLFI investor, filed suit against the venture in April in San Francisco federal court alleging extortion and an illegal scheme to seize his tokens \u2014 claims the project\u2019s co-founders deny, per Bloomberg\u2019s reporting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">World Liberty has also deposited 5 billion of its own WLFI tokens into Dolomite, a decentralized lending protocol whose co-founder holds a role at World Liberty, and borrowed roughly $75 million in stablecoins against them. Critics cited by Bloomberg have argued the structure may allow insiders to convert holdings to cash without waiting for unlock periods that could extend years into the future.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-680128 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WLFIUSDT.P_2026-05-12_13-24-55.png?w=980&amp;resize=980%2C524\" alt=\"WLFI Crypto Trump WLFIUSDT.P_2026-05-12_13-24-55\" width=\"980\" height=\"524\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WLFIUSDT.P_2026-05-12_13-24-55.png?w=2660 2660w, https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WLFIUSDT.P_2026-05-12_13-24-55.png?w=640 640w, https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WLFIUSDT.P_2026-05-12_13-24-55.png?w=768 768w, https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WLFIUSDT.P_2026-05-12_13-24-55.png?w=980 980w, https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WLFIUSDT.P_2026-05-12_13-24-55.png?w=1536 1536w, https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WLFIUSDT.P_2026-05-12_13-24-55.png?w=2048 2048w, https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WLFIUSDT.P_2026-05-12_13-24-55.png?w=750 750w, https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WLFIUSDT.P_2026-05-12_13-24-55.png?w=1140 1140w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 980px) 100vw, 980px\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">The investigation marks a critical and uncomfortable moment for the nascent sector\u2019s relationship with political legitimacy. A crypto project backed by a sitting president, generating billions for founder-affiliated entities while retail investors absorb near-total losses, is precisely the kind of outcome that regulatory critics have long warned the industry invites without meaningful disclosure standards and investor protections.<\/p>\n<p>Cover image from Grok, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Bloomberg investigation published May 12 has revealed that members of the Trump family made approximately $1.55 billion from sales of the crypto World Liberty Financial (WLFI), lifting their total fortune by roughly $660 million after accounting for previously undisclosed transactions \u2014 while early retail investors remain locked out of 80% of their holdings as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-91652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}