The cryptocurrency market got off to a busy start this week. Binance, the world's largest exchange, announced that it has become the first cryptocurrency exchange to list the World Liberty Financial (WLFI) token, which is linked to the Trump family. This announcement is crucial as WLFI transitions from its "non-transferable" design during the presale period to its full trading status, as Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume.
Binance announced that it will launch spot trading for WLFI in USDT and USDC pairs at 4:00 PM Turkey time. Deposits are already active, and withdrawals will open on Tuesday. The exchange also announced that it will apply a "seed tag" to WLFI. This tag is typically used for innovative but high-risk tokens. Users must pass short tests confirming their acceptance of additional risk warnings to access WLFI transactions.
The project's WLFI tokens were designed to be non-transferable during the presale period. This was done to prevent the tokens from freely changing hands for compliance reasons. However, with the Binance listing, the token will now be freely tradable.
News of listings came from both South Korean exchanges
Following Binance's announcement, Upbit, one of South Korea's largest exchanges, also announced that it would list WLFI. It is also reported that Bithumb is preparing to follow suit.
Market data shows significant investor interest
WLFI had begun trading in derivatives markets before being offered for spot trading on Binance. Last week, WLFI futures were launched on the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange, and investors quickly took short positions. This reduced the token's valuation from $44 billion to $24 billion in a matter of hours.
Despite this, interest remains high. According to Coinglass data, more than $3.1 billion in WLFI derivatives trading volume occurred in the last 24 hours alone. Open interest increased by over 50 percent to $760 million. Binance solidified its leadership by single-handedly accounting for more than half of this volume. Twenty percent of the token supply, the first portion of tokens purchased by early investors at $0.015 and $0.05, will be unlocked today through a mechanism called "Lockbox." This corresponds to approximately 5% of the total supply. At current prices, early investors have the potential to achieve approximately 20x returns.
Will it break into the top 10 crypto projects?
With a total supply of 100 billion units and current price levels, WLFI could reach a fully diluted market capitalization (FV) of over $31 billion. This would place the project in the same league as established projects like Dogecoin, Tron, and Sui. The 22.5 billion WLFI tokens held by DT Marks DEFI LLC, a company affiliated with the Trump family, are worth over $7 billion at current prices. However, these tokens, like the shares of team members and advisors, will not be released immediately.
Political debates
The project's connection to the Trump family is generating controversy in US politics. Democratic Party members argue that former President Trump's involvement in the project could pose a corruption risk. While some measures to limit conflicts of interest were discussed under the GENIUS Act, which became law in July, they were not fully incorporated into the bill.
