The Trump-affiliated DeFi venture, World Liberty Financial, has put forward a governance proposal to launch a token buyback-and-burn program funded by protocol-owned liquidity fees.
Under the plan, 100% of fees generated from the platform’s liquidity positions on Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana would be used to repurchase WLFI tokens from the open market and permanently remove them through burning.
If approved, the move would shrink the circulating supply of WLFI, which began trading on exchanges Monday. The proposal notes that this would boost the relative stake of long-term holders while directly tying platform activity to token scarcity.
“This program removes tokens from circulation held by participants not committed to WLFI’s long-term growth and direction, effectively increasing relative weight for committed long-term holders.”
If passed, the proposal would mark the first step in a broader buyback strategy that may later tap into additional protocol revenue streams.
Most community members commenting on the proposal expressed strong support.
All-in on burning
World Liberty Financial earns trading fees from its protocol-owned liquidity, which would be used to buy WLFI tokens from short-term sellers on the open market. These tokens would then be sent to a burn address, permanently removing them from circulation.
“The proposal leans fully toward burning rather than splitting between treasury operations and burn,” explained WLFI ambassador “Tespmoore.” He noted that while alternatives such as a 50/50 split were considered, they were ultimately rejected.
Still, some uncertainties remain. The proposal does not specify expected fee amounts, making it hard to gauge the overall impact on token supply. It also leaves unanswered what would happen if the treasury required emergency funds after committing all fees to burning.
Major token unlock boosts founders’ holdings
On Monday, World Liberty Financial unlocked 24.6 billion WLFI tokens, swelling the circulating supply and lifting the Trump family’s stake to an estimated $5 billion.
The project had previously stated that founder allocations — including those held by Donald Trump and his sons Donald Trump Jr., Barron Trump, and Eric Trump — would remain locked at launch. WLFI now has 27.3 billion tokens in circulation out of a 100 billion total supply, with a market capitalization of $6.6 billion.
WLFI slides 36% from launch high
WLFI has faced heavy selling pressure since debuting this week, with short sellers driving the price down — a challenge the proposed token burn is intended to counter.
After hitting a peak of $0.331, WLFI tumbled as low as $0.210 before recovering slightly to $0.229, still nearly 30% lower on the day at the time of writing.
