David Edwards
Following the announcement of memecoins by Donald and Melania Trump, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a decentralized finance (DeFi) project connected to President-elect Donald Trump, has reported a sharp increase in sales of governance tokens. These events occur right before Monday’s inauguration of Trump.
Milestones of the Token Sale
Through X, World Liberty Financial declared on Sunday night that it has achieved a significant milestone by selling 20 billion WLFI tokens, or 20% of its 100 billion total supply. The project started a second auction of 5 billion tokens, or 5% of the entire supply, due to the tremendous demand.
“Due to massive demand and overwhelming interest, we’ve decided to open up an additional block of 5% of token supply,” the statement read.
According to Dune Analytics, this spike increased cumulative WLFI token sales to $254 million, a notable rise from $91 million the day before. According to on-chain data, WLFI currently has over 34,000 holders and 44,500 transactions.
Growth is Driven by Key Backers
Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, has become a well-known supporter of World Liberty Financial. Sun said on Sunday that Tron DAO had increased its investment in WLFI to $75 million by an additional $45 million. Sun initially gave WLFI $30 million before joining the initiative as an advisor in November.
The weekend debut of the “Official Trump” and “MELANIA” memecoins correlated with the spike in WLFI sales. As of this writing, the Official Trump token has stabilized around $44, having peaked at $72. With a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $44.1 billion, its market capitalization is currently $8.8 billion. According to DEXscreener, the MELANIA coin saw considerable volatility in price, although it eventually attained an FDV of $7.6 billion.
Wider Market Effect
As political personalities’ impact in the cryptocurrency market grows, the Trump memecoins have sparked increased interest in WLFI and the larger DeFi ecosystem. As it continues to garner international notice, World Liberty Financial is well-positioned to take advantage of this momentum thanks to the significant support of well-known investors and an expanding holding base.
