World Liberty Financial, with the Trump family at the helm, is trying to get investors to gamble on its self-branded cryptocurrency, WLFI, through the US stock market. They’re not the first to pull this kind of stunt, and it won’t be the last time we see these theatrics.
A group of investors, backed by World Liberty Financial, plans to buy 200 million shares in ALT5 Sigma Corporation, a Nasdaq-listed entity. This move is supposed to build a $1.5 billion WLFI treasury, making up about 7.5% of the coin’s total supply. Here’s what this really means: they’re trying to create a market for something that barely exists yet.
Eric Trump will be joining the board of ALT5, chaired by Zach Witkoff, another World Liberty Financial cofounder. ALT5 is being sold as a crypto payments company, but let’s be real. This deal is turning the stock into a proxy for the WLFI coin, letting investors bet on it without the usual crypto headaches. It’s like betting on a horse you’ve never seen run.
World Liberty Financial boasted on social media that this is a giant leap for WLFI. But the critics call it self-serving Wall Street gymnastics, and they’re not wrong. Michael Green from Simplify is blunt: this setup is about pumping the market cap of World Liberty Financial’s token, nothing more.
The deal raises conflict of interest concerns that have shadowed World Liberty Financial since Trump returned to the White House. The Trumps and their allies control a hefty chunk of WLFI coins and equity in the company. The idea is, if you butter up to them by investing heavily in ALT5, you might get a nod of approval. No one’s shocked. This is just another day in the world of crony capitalism.
ALT5 and World Liberty Financial have kept mum about the criticism. Meanwhile, the White House dismisses any supposed conflicts of interest as media fabrications. But the public’s distrust in these dealings isn’t going anywhere.
The Trumps teased World Liberty Financial’s launch last year with the vague promise to “make finance great again.” Now, they’re rolling out USD1, a so-called stablecoin, and the WLFI coin. Originally meant just for governance voting, WLFI was voted to become tradable on the secondary market, though trading hasn’t started yet.
The strategy here mimics MicroStrategy’s crypto treasury play, where a company holds a pile of crypto and trades at a premium. This isn’t groundbreaking. It’s been done before. Trump’s pro-crypto stance has only fueled more copycats.
ALT5’s WLFI treasury is part of this trend, but unlike others, WLFI isn’t publicly tradable yet. Green argues that creating an entity to buy WLFI when its value drops is more of a safety net than a real market move.
Some think these crypto treasury companies can justify their inflated valuations with clever financial maneuvers. But to anyone who’s been around the block, this is just another way to dress up speculative bets as sound investments.
Investors like Thomas Braziel are cautiously optimistic about these strategies, but even they recognize the risk of Trump’s deep ties to the industry. The political backlash could be nasty if the political winds shift. For Trump, controversy is par for the course. But for investors, it could be a costly lesson in market reality.
