Bitcoin — which could have already created the new “Rockefellers or Rothschilds” — has rocketed over the last year largely due to U.S. president Donald Trump’s support.
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The bitcoin price topped $124,000 per bitcoin in August but has since plunged as panicked traders brace for a rout to turn into a bitcoin price crash — though celebrities are still piling into the market.
Now, as a growing crisis at the Federal Reserve takes a surprising turn, the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial is about to release its WLFI cryptocurrency onto the open market, just as Trump’s son Eric issues a $1 million bitcoin price prediction.
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World Liberty Financial, a crypto-based, decentralized finance (DeFi) company that was created by Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr in response to their claims of being de-banked by the financial establishment, will make its WLFI cryptocurrency tradable from September 1.
“You can now move your WLFI into the lockbox to begin the unlock process,” World Liberty’s X account posted this week alongside instructions for how WLFI holders can “unlock” their coins.
“Once you’ve claimed your tokens, you’re free to trade your WLFI or keep holding, the choice is yours,” the World Liberty Financial website reads.
The WLFI market debut comes as the huge bitcoin price rally has doubled the combined crypto market over the last 12 months to $4 trillion for the first time.
WLFI futures began trading this week on the decentralized crypto exchange Hyperliquid at $0.44, with it falling sharply along with the bitcoin price and wider crypto market before bouncing back to give WLFI at a fully diluted value of around $40 billion, based on the token’s total supply of 100 billion.
Launched last year, WLFI was sold to investors as a so-called governance cryptocurrency that allowed holders to vote on the direction of World Liberty but couldn’t be traded.
“Today’s the day,” Trump posted to his Truth Social account in October last year in the run up to the November election that catapulted him back into the White House alongside a link to where the WLFI could be bought. “WorldLibertyFi token sale is live. Get your WLFI tokens now.”
The sale had a slow start but ramped up following Trump’s election victory and amid growing expectations that WLFI trading restrictions would be scrapped as the Trump administration dismantled regulatory oversight of the bitcoin and crypto market.
In March, World Liberty said it raised $250 million in its second token sale, bringing the total amount of WLFI sold to $550 million, then in July the trading ban was overturned by a vote of WLFI holders.
Earlier this month, the Nasdaq-listed ALT5 Sigma said it would create a $1.5 billion WLFI treasury, with Eric Trump set to join ALT5’s board, and following the trend of companies adding cryptocurrencies to their corporate treasuries as they try to copy the success Michael Saylor’s Strategy has seen with its $70 billion bitcoin stash.
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Despite the poor performance of Trump’s memecoin (and the even worse performance of his wife Melania’s) the Trump family remains committed to bitcoin and crypto.
“There’s no question in my mind that bitcoin hits $1 million,” Trump said this week at the Bitcoin Asia conference in Hong Kong on stage with David Bailey, a bitcoin advisor to Trump in 2024 who organised the conference that saw Trump promise to create a U.S. bitcoin strategic reserve in July last year and now leads a bitcoin acquisition company called Nakamoto.
“And by the way, I don’t think [the bitcoin price] has to stop there. I think it could go a lot higher,” Eric added.
Elsewhere, American Bitcoin, a bitcoin mining company backed by Eric and Don Jr, will start trading on the Nasdaq in September.
