On September 1st, the WLFI token associated with World Liberty Financial, a project backed by the Trump family, officially began trading.

World Liberty Financial is a cryptocurrency company focused on decentralized finance (DeFi). WLFI is described as a governance token tied to World Liberty's stablecoin and upcoming payment application.

According to the company's official website, Trump and his children are listed as co-founders, and the project has attracted significant market attention since its launch.

**Potential to Become Ninth Largest Cryptocurrency**

The WLFI token was initially launched last year as a governance token, granting holders voting rights over World Liberty's business development direction. However, by design, it initially did not support public trading. In November 2024, on the eve of the US election, Trump publicly promoted WLFI on his social media platform Truth Social, urging supporters to purchase the token and providing purchase links, stating "token sale is now live."

As Trump's election victory probability increased and market expectations strengthened regarding his administration's potential relaxation of cryptocurrency regulations, WLFI token sales gradually accelerated. In March this year, World Liberty announced successfully raising $250 million in its second token sale round, bringing WLFI's total sales to $550 million. Subsequently, in July this year, following a holder vote, trading restrictions on the token were lifted, paving the way for WLFI to enter public market trading.

The company emphasized WLFI token's role in its broader strategy, including creating USD1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, and integrating e-commerce and payment functions through Alt5 Sigma. Executives claim World Liberty will provide governance support for these products and ultimately funding support for expansion, though details about how this governance translates into business outcomes remain limited.

At its official launch, WLFI had a total supply of 33 billion tokens, but only a small fraction was available for trading at launch, with the majority still held by insiders and early investors. According to regulations, early investors can initially sell only up to 20% of their holdings, with the remainder temporarily locked and non-tradable.

Prediction market Myriad data shows over 77% of participants predict its price will exceed $0.2. In the hours before partial token unlocking, WLFI derivatives market trading activity surged significantly, with both open interest and trading volume experiencing spikes.

CoinGlass data shows that during Monday's early trading, WLFI derivative contract open interest total value once approached $950 million, later falling to $887 million, but still representing a substantial 45% increase from the previous day.

Trading activity is also expanding dramatically. In just the past 24 hours, WLFI derivatives trading volume surged over 535% to $4.54 billion, jumping to become the world's fifth-largest cryptocurrency derivative.

In the spot market, WLFI token prices hover around $0.34 across most exchanges, below the periodic high of over $0.40 from a week ago. Even maintaining prices around $0.34, based on its total supply of 100 billion tokens, the fully diluted market cap could still reach $34 billion, sufficient to rank ninth on the cryptocurrency market cap list and push Dogecoin out of the top ten.

Major exchange Binance officially launched WLFI trading at 12:00 PM Beijing time (4:00 AM UTC). Subsequently, prominent Korean exchange Upbit also announced listing the token, further expanding its global trading coverage.

From the derivatives market landscape, Binance dominates WLFI trading. CoinGlass data shows its 24-hour trading volume reached $2.22 billion, accounting for approximately 50%, with over 10.5 million trades. Simultaneously, Binance holds the largest open interest share, totaling $436.5 million, representing half the market total. OKX ranks second in trading activity, completing nearly 1.1 million trades in the past 24 hours with trading volume reaching $917.5 million.

**Ongoing Controversies**

WLFI token's official listing is viewed as an important milestone in the cryptocurrency market, combining political resources, strong trading performance, and mainstream exchange support, with significant market influence. However, its complex token economic structure and potential regulatory risks have sparked widespread debate about whether the project has genuine value or involves market manipulation suspicions. This controversy makes WLFI a focal point for investor attention.

In the cryptocurrency field, token market cap rankings often directly influence capital allocation and market confidence. Most market platforms like CoinMarketCap typically use "price multiplied by circulating supply" as ranking criteria, and rankings usually influence capital flows. However, few tokens are as close to core political power as WLFI.

Market traders note that with limited circulation, token prices are more susceptible to capital-driven volatility. Christensen, a trader who previously traded Trump-related meme coins profitably, stated he is planning short-term WLFI operations to pursue substantial returns.

According to estimates, if calculated at WLFI's pre-market contract price of approximately $0.32, early investors who entered at $0.015 could potentially achieve about 20x paper returns.

However, the market also voices caution. Compass Point analysts warned in early August that if trading volume rapidly decreases, WLFI's debut could "become another catalyst for destroying retail traders," citing concentrated insider holdings and lack of public market price discovery. They further noted that even if only some major shareholders choose to sell, it could severely impact token prices during the initial low-liquidity phase. Previous collapses of some Trump-related cryptocurrency projects serve as precedents.

Additionally, previous investigative reporting revealed that WLFI's debut involves a complex "circular transaction" extremely rare in traditional finance. Specifically, World Liberty Financial, controlled by Trump family-related enterprises, first acquired payment company Alt5 Sigma, which then raised $750 million externally to purchase WLFI tokens from WLF. This arrangement allegedly generated approximately $500 million in revenue for the Trump family.

If the disclosed "left-hand-right-hand" trading model proves true, it would be viewed as a typical market manipulation warning sign, and investors could face risks similar to previous "Trump coins."