Key Takeaways:
(Bloomberg) -- World Liberty Financial, the crypto project co-founded by President Trump and his sons, has ignited a firestorm among its early investors with a proposal to lock up 80% of their tokens for four years, pushing full access out to 2030.
“This proposal was designed to optimally ensure long-term participation in our ecosystem and help ensure healthy market supply,” World Liberty Financial spokesman David Wachsman said in a statement.
The proposed lockup, announced Wednesday on the project’s governance forum, would subject 17 billion tokens to a two-year trading freeze, followed by a two-year vesting period. The move comes after the project’s token, WLFI, hit an all-time low of $0.078 on April 12, according to CoinGecko data. The lockup would also apply to the founders' tokens, with an additional year of vesting and a 10% token burn.
The proposal has intensified investor frustration that has been simmering for months. Many have voiced concerns over the project’s centralized control, a tiered voting system that favors large token holders, and a perceived lack of transparency. The controversy escalated last week when it was revealed that World Liberty Financial had borrowed $75 million against its own token reserves, a move that investors feared could flood the market and further suppress the price. The company has since repaid $25 million of the loan.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
