There are Bitcoin treasuries. There are ether treasuries. And, now, there’s a WLFI treasury.
A stock-and-token deal announced earlier this week will effectively turn a publicly traded company into a proxy for the Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial coin, known as “WLFI.” ALT5 Sigma (ALTS), originally a health-tech company, raised $1.5 billion, selling 200 million new and existing shares, with some of the proceeds earmarked to acquire WLFI from World Liberty Financial.
ALT5 plans to adopt a WLFI-specific treasury strategy, holding roughly 7.5% of the coin’s total supply, according to a press release. World Liberty Financial was the lead investor of ALT5’s share sale, with the latter company revealing in a filing that it received $750 million of WLFI from the Trump-backed crypto project in exchange for shares of ALT5 in a private placement.
It’s the latest example of the move toward companies seeking to become treasuries of digital assets, holding them in substantial quantities whether for appreciation or as an alternative to other balance-sheet assets — reminiscent, though at a smaller scale, of how Michael Saylor turned his enterprise software company into a proxy for bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Strategy (MSTR) now holds close to 630,000 BTC.
While bitcoin and ether are more commonly held, the ALT5 investment is one of several recent signals that some companies are looking elsewhere. World Liberty in October tried to raise $300 million in a token sale but was met with a lukewarm reception.
On Tuesday, following the raise, Eric Trump, son of President Donald Trump, joined the ALT5 board of directors, while World Liberty Financial cofounder Zach Witkoff joined as chairman. Witkoff is the son of Trump-appointed Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff.
There is a 100 billion-token supply of WLFI, which was deemed non-transferable when it was launched. World Liberty Financial in mid-July said trading in the token could start as soon as the end of this month after a community vote agreed to it.
Traders interested in WLFI should exercise caution. Copycat coins — including one called “Wen Lambo Financial” — have sprung up on various exchanges using the same symbol. Shares of the micro-cap ALT5, meanwhile, vaulted higher Wednesday.
