- Tron founder Justin Sun wants to establish Trump ties through World Liberty Financial.
- The controversial crypto founder has labeled his efforts as geared towards driving innovation in the U.S.
- World Liberty Financial has struggled to take off amid cash grab allegations.
If there is anything Tron founder Justin Sun knows, it is how to jump on a trend.
With the recent driver for the crypto market being the anticipated pro-crypto policy stance of a Donald Trump-led administration, the controversial Tron founder is looking to take advantage.
MAGA-TRON
Tron founder Justin Sun is looking to establish Trump ties. On Monday, November 25, the controversial Sun announced that Tron DAO had invested $30 million in U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s equally controversial DeFi project World Liberty Financial.
With the move, Tron DAO has become the largest investor in the project by far, acquiring 2 billion of the project’s WLFI tokens. For context, the second largest investor invested just about $2.9 million for over 190 million WLFI tokens, per Dune Analytics data.
According to Sun, the WLFI token purchase, which represents nearly 60% of the project’s current token sales, is geared toward fostering innovation in the U.S.
"We are thrilled to invest $30 million in World Liberty Financial as its largest investor. The U.S. is becoming the blockchain hub, and Bitcoin owes it to Donald Trump! TRON is committed to making America great again and leading innovation. Let's go!" the Tron founder enthused in a statement on X.
The Donald Trump-backed project has meanwhile taken the recent development in stride.
"We're honored to have the support of Justin Sun and Tron DAO! Together, we're driving innovation, aligning on a vision for a stronger blockchain future, and contributing to the growing ecosystem. Exciting times ahead!" World Liberty Financial's official X account posted.
The response comes as the Tron DAO investment significantly boosts the otherwise struggling project.
Dead on Arrival
The Trump family promoted World Liberty Financial as a financial disruptor that will challenge the traditional banking system and empower its users. While this rhetoric is nothing new in crypto, the Trump name was enough to drive significant interest in the project, especially after plans for a WLFI token were announced.
This excitement, however, quickly dissipated as interested users learned more about the project. For one, the project noted tokens were to indefinitely remain locked and non-transferable until they could be unlocked “through protocol governance procedures in a fashion that does not contrive applicable law.”
At the same time, the project also gave DT Marks DEFI LLC, an entity with ties to the Trump family, the right to 75% of the protocol’s net revenue for at least five years in addition to 22.5% of the project’s token supply, leading to cash grab allegations.
The sentiment shift around the project has been visible in its failure to meet its token sales target. At a fixed price of $0.015 per token, it initially planned to raise $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation. However, after over a month, the token has raised only about $50 million, including Justin Sun’s recent contribution.
Read more about Justin Sun:
TRON’s Justin Sun Drops $6M on a Literal Banana
Learn more about Sky Mavis’ recent job cut:
Axie Infinity Developer Joins Layoff Trend with 21% Jobs Cut
