World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the Trump Organization’s cryptocurrency venture, is blurring the lines between private enterprise and government policy in unprecedented ways in modern U.S. history.

The Hidden Terms of Partnership

Days before President Trump’s inauguration, a pitch from "ZMoney" appeared on the encrypted messaging app Signal.

"ZMoney" refers to Zachary Folkman, an entrepreneur who once ran a dating app called Date Hotter Girls and now represents WLFI. Folkman was messaging a Cayman Islands-based cryptocurrency startup, proposing a "partnership" in which both sides would buy each other’s digital tokens—a deal that would boost the startup’s public profile.

But The New York Times uncovered a hidden clause. To secure the privilege of partnering with the Trump family, the startup would have to secretly pay WLFI millions of dollars.

"Everything we do gets a ton of exposure and credibility," Folkman wrote, claiming other business partners had pledged 10millionto30 million in donations to WLFI.

WLFI executives say the Cayman startup rejected the offer, as did several others approached with similar proposals. They deemed the deals unethical, arguing WLFI was essentially selling access to its political endorsement while hiding this from the public.

WLFI’s leadership insists they did nothing improper—and their actions haven’t been hindered. They successfully pitched similar deals to other firms while marketing WLFI tokens to buyers worldwide, generating over $550 million in sales, with a significant portion of proceeds allocated to the president’s family.

Trump’s return to the White House has opened new avenues for profiteering through his social media company and new overseas real estate deals. But few of the Trump family’s business ventures blur the lines of interest and power as boldly as WLFI.

Owned primarily by Trump family entities, WLFI shatters centuries-old norms governing presidential conduct, erasing the boundaries between private enterprise and government policy in ways unseen in modern U.S. history.

Trump is now not just a major cryptocurrency trader but also the industry’s top policymaker. During his second term, he has used his presidential authority to benefit the sector—despite years of mocking crypto as a haven for drug dealers and fraudsters.

His administration includes sympathizers of the crypto cause, including the appointment of a crypto industry advisor as SEC chair. The Justice Department recently disbanded a cryptocurrency crime task force, continuing a broader rollback of Biden-era scrutiny.

The New York Times’ investigation into WLFI’s rapid rise and Trump’s evolution from crypto skeptic to industry champion highlights a web of conflicts:

• WLFI directly benefits from Trump administration actions, such as his announcement of a federal cryptocurrency reserve that includes digital tokens WLFI has invested in. The president’s statement temporarily boosted WLFI’s holdings.

• WLFI has sold its cryptocurrency to overseas investors, including in Israel and Hong Kong, creating a new avenue for foreign firms to curry favor with Trump.

• Several investors in WLFI’s crypto management arm have been accused of misconduct by federal authorities, including an executive whose fraud case was paused after he invested millions in WLFI. Others are seeking business expansions requiring Trump administration approval.

• WLFI proposed crypto deals with at least five startups, often demanding exorbitant fees in Trump’s name—deals that alarmed senior executives.

"It’s a stain on our industry," said Andre Cronje, founder of Sonic Labs. "Anyone who takes this project obviously thinks they’ll make money because it’s Trump-endorsed."

WLFI spokesman David Wachsman denied any of the firm’s deals constituted "quid pro quo payments." He acknowledged "co-investment transactions" that fostered "thoughtful strategic exchanges" between parties.

Suggesting WLFI investments or partnerships are political exchanges is "false, absurd, and dangerous," Wachsman said. "No investor or partner has ever requested political favoritism, nor would we ever entertain it."

Still, the deals benefit the president and his family. Trump’s business entity owns 60% of WLFI and is entitled to 75% of token sale proceeds, redeemable for cash, according to WLFI’s website.

"This is one of the most successful things we’ve ever done," said Eric Frederick Trump, the president’s son and a WLFI participant, in an interview at Trump Doral in Florida this month.

He and his brother Donald John Trump are active in WLFI, though they rely on three partners to oversee daily operations: Zachary Folkman and Chase Herro, who have mixed records in crypto, and Zach Witkoff, son of Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and a WLFI founder.

In recent days, Witkoff, Folkman, and Herro met Pakistan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and other senior officials in Islamabad to discuss WLFI, blending presidential business with statecraft through limousines, dance performances, and police escorts.

President Trump argues conflict-of-interest laws don’t apply to him and that his official actions enjoy broad immunity.

"His assets are held in a trust managed by his children," a spokesperson said, "so there’s no conflict."

WLFI backers dismiss conflict concerns. "Trump wants to make big money in crypto," said Konstantin Kuznetsov, a Russian citizen in Miami whose Gibraltar-based company bought $1 million in WLFI tokens. "We can ride this wave."

A businessman known for real estate, Trump never aspired to build a digital currency empire. Indeed, he derided crypto via social media at the end of his first term, warning they "are not money." Their "value is highly volatile and based on thin air." By last year, his views shifted.

After the January 6 Capitol attack and his family businesses’ ouster from mainstream finance, his eldest sons became crypto evangelists.

"We build, sell, and hold real estate forever. For a long time, I could reach everyone in the world," Donald John Trump explained last month at a crypto conference in Washington. "Suddenly, that became very difficult. I quickly realized how badly discriminated against we are in normal financial markets."

Meanwhile, millions in crypto campaign donations flowed into Trump’s reelection bid. Facing nearly 100 SEC enforcement actions under Biden, crypto executives sought a champion in Washington.

During the campaign, Trump’s crypto skepticism vanished. At a July Bitcoin conference, he vowed to make America "the global capital of crypto."

Two months later, he completed his pivot, announcing he and his sons would enter crypto via World Liberty Financial.

Trump unveiled the news live from Mar-a-Lago, joined by Eric, Donald John, Folkman, Herro, and Witkoff. "Crypto is one of the things we have to do," Trump said. "Whether we like it or not, I have to do it."

Choosing Herro and Witkoff as presidential partners was striking.

Folkman, with his short, curly hair and tattoos, ran a company in his 20s coaching awkward men to pick up women. Herro, in podcasts, has chronicled his redemption from a wild youth that included marijuana charges and weeks in a Wisconsin jail.

The pair collaborated for years selling colon cleansers and get-rich-quick schemes before pivoting to crypto with mixed results.

In 2022, Herro urged crypto enthusiasts to invest in TerraUSD, calling it "one of the coolest assets in history." A month later, TerraUSD collapsed, wiping out billions. Their latest crypto platform, Dough Finance, was hacked in July, losing $2 million.

How they won the Trump family’s trust is unclear. But Steve Witkoff said last year he met them through his son and introduced them to the Trumps.

At the WLFI unveiling, Donald John Trump praised the group as financial "A-players."

"You could put them in a Goldman Sachs boardroom, and they’d blow everyone away," he said.

In October, Herro and Folkman launched WLFI’s first initiative: selling $300 million in WLFI tokens.

Unlike MemecoinTRUMP, WLFI promised buyers would vote on business decisions like traditional shareholders, according to its marketing. The ultimate plan: operate as a neo-internet bank, letting clients borrow in various digital currencies.

Trump was central to the pitch. The company released a 13-page "Golden Ledger" describing its mission and leadership team. Trump’s portrait, splashed with gold paint, adorned the cover.

He would serve as the firm’s "Chief Crypto Advocate," it said.

When WLFI launched, the Trump family and affiliates received 22.5 billion WLFI tokens, currently worth at least $1.1 billion on paper.

Under company rules, the Trumps and other WLFI investors can’t sell their tokens publicly, though WLFI says that restriction could eventually lift if other token holders agree.

Initially, buyers were scarce. By late October, WLFI had sold just $2.7 million in tokens—far short of its goal.

Election Day changed the calculus.

As polls closed across much of the U.S. and Trump’s victory neared, WLFI’s X account posted a celebratory message on November 5: "Big things are coming."

Soon, investment poured into World Liberty’s crypto.

Most crypto transactions are recorded on a public ledger called the blockchain, with buyers and sellers largely anonymous. But World Liberty says it fully vets its crypto investors, so it knows their identities.

On-chain data analytics firm Nansen, analyzing crypto industry data for The Times, found many investors reside overseas in Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates.

Federal law bars foreigners from donating to presidential campaigns or inaugural funds, but WLFI’s sales offer a new, legal way to support Trump.

"The main reason to buy this token is to support Trump’s inauguration, as he’s America’s first crypto-friendly president," said Keer Lau, chief strategy officer of Hong Kong-based Orbiter Finance.

Some domestic and foreign investors’ firms have violated U.S. regulations. One is Israeli Yoni Assia, who founded online trading platform eToro. Its U.S. subsidiary settled 1.5millioninSECcrypto−relatedviolationslastyear.PuertoRicaninvestorTroyMurray,whoboughtWorldLibertytokens,helpedcreateBarnBridge,whichagreedtopay1.7 million to the SEC in late 2023 to settle its own crypto charges.

Since Trump took office, some World Liberty investors have urged the administration for regulatory approvals or prepared to engage the government as they seek to establish or expand businesses in the U.S.

In March, Assia’s firm notified the SEC of plans to list in the U.S. United Arab Emirates-based crypto firm DWF Labs announced this month it had spent $25 million to acquire WLFI and would open a New York office.

"This deal raises our U.S. profile," Andrei Grachev, DWF Labs’ managing partner, said in an interview. "We want direct dialogue with policymakers."

Late last year, Sun Yuchen drew global attention by buying a banana taped to a wall for 620,000atanartauction.Soonafter,hemadeanothersplashymove:purchasing75 million in WLFI tokens.

The investment drew widespread community criticism for Sun’s apparent bid to curry favor with the Trump administration. The SEC had sued Sun under Biden, alleging he fraudulently pumped the price of Tron (TRX).

Sun denied the SEC’s claims and told The New York Times in a text message last year his WLFI investment was merely a vote of confidence in the Trump family’s "excellent project."

In late February, the SEC requested a federal judge pause its case against Sun: The agency said it was exploring "potential resolutions." The judge granted the request.

Sun delivered a huge boost to WLFI. But Trump’s firm wanted more money. Much more.

So WLFI executives soon announced a plan they called "transformative": partnering with and investing in other crypto firms’ tokens. The strategy, executives said in February, would leverage WLFI’s growing influence to help lesser-known partners.

"It’s like taking care of your boys in space," Chase Herro said that month at a crypto event in New York.

But according to executives at several crypto startups approached by WLFI, the firm’s public statements omitted a key aspect of its private pitches. WLFI wanted to sell its own crypto, not just invest in others. It proposed currency swaps.

Here’s how the deals WLFI proposed worked, according to executives at three crypto firms the company approached: The startups would spend 10millionto30 million to buy large amounts of WLFI’s tokens. In return, WLFI would purchase small amounts of each startup’s native crypto. The remaining funds would go to WLFI—a premium of up to 20%.

WLFI’s purchases would signal to the market that Trump’s firm deemed the startups worthy of investment. But the market wouldn’t know if WLFI was paid for the endorsement. Industry news outlet Blockworks previously reported details of similar WLFI pitches.

"They kept telling us we’d feel so close to Trump," said Mike Silagadze, CEO of Ether.Fi, a crypto startup WLFI approached.

"We rejected it immediately," said Dominik Schiener, founder of Berlin-based IOTA Foundation, which also received the proposal. "It’s a very dishonest approach."

WLFI spokesman Wachsman said in a statement that The Times’ reporting "fundamentally misunderstands standard industry practices" and that the firm’s business arrangements "are not only common in the blockchain industry but essential to forging lasting economic alliances in the business world."

"These arrangements create aligned interests among all parties," he added.

The Times found the benefits of partnerships were enough to entice at least five crypto firms into other deals with WLFI without disclosing financial arrangement details.

In one deal, the U.S.-based Sui Foundation announced WLFI would buy an unspecified amount of its tokens, sending Sui’s price up over 10%. In return, the foundation would receive WLFI tokens, two people familiar with the agreement said, speaking anonymously to discuss private negotiations.

Other WLFI partnerships show how Trump blends his public office with business. In December, the firm announced it would use technology designed by Lisbon-based startup Ethena Labs. It also bought over $5 million in Ethena tokens.

One of Ethena’s investors is crypto entrepreneur Arthur Hayes, who pleaded guilty in 2022 to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and was sentenced to six months of home confinement. Last month, Trump pardoned Hayes. (A spokesperson for Ethena and Hayes declined to comment.)

Another WLFI partner is Ondo Finance, a New York-based startup backed by conservative billionaire Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm, Founders Fund.

WLFI first bought Ondo tokens in December, over 130,000 of them. The deal at least briefly boosted Ondo’s token price and made headlines across crypto news sites, praising WLFI’s bet.

In January, Ondo donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, securing invitations to a candlelight dinner at Washington’s National Building Museum that included several Trump Cabinet nominees. Ondo also sponsored an inaugural event called the "Crypto Ball." Soon after, Donald John Trump and WLFI’s management team headlined a conference in New York.

"We weren’t sure this moment would happen," Ondo chief strategy officer Ian De Bode said onstage. "But sometimes, things just click."

In February, Eric Trump tweeted investment advice to his followers: "In my opinion, now is a good time to buy Ethereum."

That’s the ticker symbol for the digital currency called "Ether." "You can thank me later," he added, deleting the message.

His advice proved prescient.

The next month, Trump announced the creation of the "U.S. Cryptocurrency Reserve Center," a Fort Knox-like repository for digital currencies meant to help prop up the industry.

Trump’s statement listed the digital currencies that would be included in the reserve. Besides Bitcoin, he included Ether, calling it "going to be the core of the reserve."

Ether’s price surged over 13%.

The direct beneficiary: World Liberty. Over the past several months, the firm had bought $240 million worth of Ether, according to crypto data firm Arkham.

On the day of the president’s crypto reserve announcement, assuming WLFI hadn’t sold any of its Ether holdings, their value rose by $33 million. But as Ether’s value fell, so did the gains.

The same pattern repeated in March. Trump made policy statements or released messages intersecting with WLFI’s business interests.

In a video from a crypto conference in New York, Trump called on Congress to pass legislation governing stablecoins, cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a $1 value.

Bills have been introduced in the Senate and House aimed at making it easier for companies issuing stablecoins to operate in the U.S. In his speech last month, Trump said the rise of stablecoins would "expand the dominance of the dollar."

A week later, WLFI announced its own stablecoin, USD1. "The future is here, and it’s bright!" Zach Witkoff wrote on X.

Jordi Alexander, a crypto executive who helped WLFI craft its stablecoin launch plans, said in an interview the firm had commitments of at least $1 billion from investors to buy the token once it launched.

The new venture will only heighten WLFI’s ethical conflicts. The firm plans to offer the stablecoin on a platform developed by Binance. This week, Zachary Folkman, Chase Herro, and Zach Witkoff met in Abu Dhabi with Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Zhao, serving a four-month federal prison sentence for money laundering, has been seeking a pardon from the Trump administration, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously due to the topic’s sensitivity.

The overlap between Trump’s policy statements and his business interests has alarmed congressional Democrats, who recently moved to amend pending stablecoin legislation to bar the Trump family from issuing stablecoins.

The amendment failed, but any concerns about WLFI haven’t derailed its momentum.

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the Trump Organization’s cryptocurrency venture, is blurring the lines between private enterprise and government policy in unprecedented ways in modern U.S. history.

The Hidden Terms of Partnership

Days before President Trump’s inauguration, a pitch from "ZMoney" appeared on the encrypted messaging app Signal.

"ZMoney" refers to Zachary Folkman, an entrepreneur who once ran a dating app called Date Hotter Girls and now represents WLFI. Folkman was messaging a Cayman Islands-based cryptocurrency startup, proposing a "partnership" in which both sides would buy each other’s digital tokens—a deal that would boost the startup’s public profile.

But The New York Times uncovered a hidden clause. To secure the privilege of partnering with the Trump family, the startup would have to secretly pay WLFI millions of dollars.

"Everything we do gets a ton of exposure and credibility," Folkman wrote, claiming other business partners had pledged 10millionto30 million in donations to WLFI.

WLFI executives say the Cayman startup rejected the offer, as did several others approached with similar proposals. They deemed the deals unethical, arguing WLFI was essentially selling access to its political endorsement while hiding this from the public.

WLFI’s leadership insists they did nothing improper—and their actions haven’t been hindered. They successfully pitched similar deals to other firms while marketing WLFI tokens to buyers worldwide, generating over $550 million in sales, with a significant portion of proceeds allocated to the president’s family.

Trump’s return to the White House has opened new avenues for profiteering through his social media company and new overseas real estate deals. But few of the Trump family’s business ventures blur the lines of interest and power as boldly as WLFI.

Owned primarily by Trump family entities, WLFI shatters centuries-old norms governing presidential conduct, erasing the boundaries between private enterprise and government policy in ways unseen in modern U.S. history.

Trump is now not just a major cryptocurrency trader but also the industry’s top policymaker. During his second term, he has used his presidential authority to benefit the sector—despite years of mocking crypto as a haven for drug dealers and fraudsters.

His administration includes sympathizers of the crypto cause, including the appointment of a crypto industry advisor as SEC chair. The Justice Department recently disbanded a cryptocurrency crime task force, continuing a broader rollback of Biden-era scrutiny.

The New York Times’ investigation into WLFI’s rapid rise and Trump’s evolution from crypto skeptic to industry champion highlights a web of conflicts:

• WLFI directly benefits from Trump administration actions, such as his announcement of a federal cryptocurrency reserve that includes digital tokens WLFI has invested in. The president’s statement temporarily boosted WLFI’s holdings.

• WLFI has sold its cryptocurrency to overseas investors, including in Israel and Hong Kong, creating a new avenue for foreign firms to curry favor with Trump.

• Several investors in WLFI’s crypto management arm have been accused of misconduct by federal authorities, including an executive whose fraud case was paused after he invested millions in WLFI. Others are seeking business expansions requiring Trump administration approval.

• WLFI proposed crypto deals with at least five startups, often demanding exorbitant fees in Trump’s name—deals that alarmed senior executives.

"It’s a stain on our industry," said Andre Cronje, founder of Sonic Labs. "Anyone who takes this project obviously thinks they’ll make money because it’s Trump-endorsed."

WLFI spokesman David Wachsman denied any of the firm’s deals constituted "quid pro quo payments." He acknowledged "co-investment transactions" that fostered "thoughtful strategic exchanges" between parties.

Suggesting WLFI investments or partnerships are political exchanges is "false, absurd, and dangerous," Wachsman said. "No investor or partner has ever requested political favoritism, nor would we ever entertain it."

Still, the deals benefit the president and his family. Trump’s business entity owns 60% of WLFI and is entitled to 75% of token sale proceeds, redeemable for cash, according to WLFI’s website.

"This is one of the most successful things we’ve ever done," said Eric Frederick Trump, the president’s son and a WLFI participant, in an interview at Trump Doral in Florida this month.

He and his brother Donald John Trump are active in WLFI, though they rely on three partners to oversee daily operations: Zachary Folkman and Chase Herro, who have mixed records in crypto, and Zach Witkoff, son of Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and a WLFI founder.

In recent days, Witkoff, Folkman, and Herro met Pakistan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and other senior officials in Islamabad to discuss WLFI, blending presidential business with statecraft through limousines, dance performances, and police escorts.

President Trump argues conflict-of-interest laws don’t apply to him and that his official actions enjoy broad immunity.

"His assets are held in a trust managed by his children," a spokesperson said, "so there’s no conflict."

WLFI backers dismiss conflict concerns. "Trump wants to make big money in crypto," said Konstantin Kuznetsov, a Russian citizen in Miami whose Gibraltar-based company bought $1 million in WLFI tokens. "We can ride this wave."

A businessman known for real estate, Trump never aspired to build a digital currency empire. Indeed, he derided crypto via social media at the end of his first term, warning they "are not money." Their "value is highly volatile and based on thin air." By last year, his views shifted.

After the January 6 Capitol attack and his family businesses’ ouster from mainstream finance, his eldest sons became crypto evangelists.

"We build, sell, and hold real estate forever. For a long time, I could reach everyone in the world," Donald John Trump explained last month at a crypto conference in Washington. "Suddenly, that became very difficult. I quickly realized how badly discriminated against we are in normal financial markets."

Meanwhile, millions in crypto campaign donations flowed into Trump’s reelection bid. Facing nearly 100 SEC enforcement actions under Biden, crypto executives sought a champion in Washington.

During the campaign, Trump’s crypto skepticism vanished. At a July Bitcoin conference, he vowed to make America "the global capital of crypto."

Two months later, he completed his pivot, announcing he and his sons would enter crypto via World Liberty Financial.

Trump unveiled the news live from Mar-a-Lago, joined by Eric, Donald John, Folkman, Herro, and Witkoff. "Crypto is one of the things we have to do," Trump said. "Whether we like it or not, I have to do it."

Choosing Herro and Witkoff as presidential partners was striking.

Folkman, with his short, curly hair and tattoos, ran a company in his 20s coaching awkward men to pick up women. Herro, in podcasts, has chronicled his redemption from a wild youth that included marijuana charges and weeks in a Wisconsin jail.

The pair collaborated for years selling colon cleansers and get-rich-quick schemes before pivoting to crypto with mixed results.

In 2022, Herro urged crypto enthusiasts to invest in TerraUSD, calling it "one of the coolest assets in history." A month later, TerraUSD collapsed, wiping out billions. Their latest crypto platform, Dough Finance, was hacked in July, losing $2 million.

How they won the Trump family’s trust is unclear. But Steve Witkoff said last year he met them through his son and introduced them to the Trumps.

At the WLFI unveiling, Donald John Trump praised the group as financial "A-players."

"You could put them in a Goldman Sachs boardroom, and they’d blow everyone away," he said.

In October, Herro and Folkman launched WLFI’s first initiative: selling $300 million in WLFI tokens.

Unlike MemecoinTRUMP, WLFI promised buyers would vote on business decisions like traditional shareholders, according to its marketing. The ultimate plan: operate as a neo-internet bank, letting clients borrow in various digital currencies.

Trump was central to the pitch. The company released a 13-page "Golden Ledger" describing its mission and leadership team. Trump’s portrait, splashed with gold paint, adorned the cover.

He would serve as the firm’s "Chief Crypto Advocate," it said.

When WLFI launched, the Trump family and affiliates received 22.5 billion WLFI tokens, currently worth at least $1.1 billion on paper.

Under company rules, the Trumps and other WLFI investors can’t sell their tokens publicly, though WLFI says that restriction could eventually lift if other token holders agree.

Initially, buyers were scarce. By late October, WLFI had sold just $2.7 million in tokens—far short of its goal.

Election Day changed the calculus.

As polls closed across much of the U.S. and Trump’s victory neared, WLFI’s X account posted a celebratory message on November 5: "Big things are coming."

Soon, investment poured into World Liberty’s crypto.

Most crypto transactions are recorded on a public ledger called the blockchain, with buyers and sellers largely anonymous. But World Liberty says it fully vets its crypto investors, so it knows their identities.

On-chain data analytics firm Nansen, analyzing crypto industry data for The Times, found many investors reside overseas in Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates.

Federal law bars foreigners from donating to presidential campaigns or inaugural funds, but WLFI’s sales offer a new, legal way to support Trump.

"The main reason to buy this token is to support Trump’s inauguration, as he’s America’s first crypto-friendly president," said Keer Lau, chief strategy officer of Hong Kong-based Orbiter Finance.

Some domestic and foreign investors’ firms have violated U.S. regulations. One is Israeli Yoni Assia, who founded online trading platform eToro. Its U.S. subsidiary settled 1.5millioninSECcrypto−relatedviolationslastyear.PuertoRicaninvestorTroyMurray,whoboughtWorldLibertytokens,helpedcreateBarnBridge,whichagreedtopay1.7 million to the SEC in late 2023 to settle its own crypto charges.

Since Trump took office, some World Liberty investors have urged the administration for regulatory approvals or prepared to engage the government as they seek to establish or expand businesses in the U.S.

In March, Assia’s firm notified the SEC of plans to list in the U.S. United Arab Emirates-based crypto firm DWF Labs announced this month it had spent $25 million to acquire WLFI and would open a New York office.

"This deal raises our U.S. profile," Andrei Grachev, DWF Labs’ managing partner, said in an interview. "We want direct dialogue with policymakers."

Late last year, Sun Yuchen drew global attention by buying a banana taped to a wall for 620,000atanartauction.Soonafter,hemadeanothersplashymove:purchasing75 million in WLFI tokens.

The investment drew widespread community criticism for Sun’s apparent bid to curry favor with the Trump administration. The SEC had sued Sun under Biden, alleging he fraudulently pumped the price of Tron (TRX).

Sun denied the SEC’s claims and told The New York Times in a text message last year his WLFI investment was merely a vote of confidence in the Trump family’s "excellent project."

In late February, the SEC requested a federal judge pause its case against Sun: The agency said it was exploring "potential resolutions." The judge granted the request.

Sun delivered a huge boost to WLFI. But Trump’s firm wanted more money. Much more.

So WLFI executives soon announced a plan they called "transformative": partnering with and investing in other crypto firms’ tokens. The strategy, executives said in February, would leverage WLFI’s growing influence to help lesser-known partners.

"It’s like taking care of your boys in space," Chase Herro said that month at a crypto event in New York.

But according to executives at several crypto startups approached by WLFI, the firm’s public statements omitted a key aspect of its private pitches. WLFI wanted to sell its own crypto, not just invest in others. It proposed currency swaps.

Here’s how the deals WLFI proposed worked, according to executives at three crypto firms the company approached: The startups would spend 10millionto30 million to buy large amounts of WLFI’s tokens. In return, WLFI would purchase small amounts of each startup’s native crypto. The remaining funds would go to WLFI—a premium of up to 20%.

WLFI’s purchases would signal to the market that Trump’s firm deemed the startups worthy of investment. But the market wouldn’t know if WLFI was paid for the endorsement. Industry news outlet Blockworks previously reported details of similar WLFI pitches.

"They kept telling us we’d feel so close to Trump," said Mike Silagadze, CEO of Ether.Fi, a crypto startup WLFI approached.

"We rejected it immediately," said Dominik Schiener, founder of Berlin-based IOTA Foundation, which also received the proposal. "It’s a very dishonest approach."

WLFI spokesman Wachsman said in a statement that The Times’ reporting "fundamentally misunderstands standard industry practices" and that the firm’s business arrangements "are not only common in the blockchain industry but essential to forging lasting economic alliances in the business world."

"These arrangements create aligned interests among all parties," he added.

The Times found the benefits of partnerships were enough to entice at least five crypto firms into other deals with WLFI without disclosing financial arrangement details.

In one deal, the U.S.-based Sui Foundation announced WLFI would buy an unspecified amount of its tokens, sending Sui’s price up over 10%. In return, the foundation would receive WLFI tokens, two people familiar with the agreement said, speaking anonymously to discuss private negotiations.

Other WLFI partnerships show how Trump blends his public office with business. In December, the firm announced it would use technology designed by Lisbon-based startup Ethena Labs. It also bought over $5 million in Ethena tokens.

One of Ethena’s investors is crypto entrepreneur Arthur Hayes, who pleaded guilty in 2022 to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and was sentenced to six months of home confinement. Last month, Trump pardoned Hayes. (A spokesperson for Ethena and Hayes declined to comment.)

Another WLFI partner is Ondo Finance, a New York-based startup backed by conservative billionaire Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm, Founders Fund.

WLFI first bought Ondo tokens in December, over 130,000 of them. The deal at least briefly boosted Ondo’s token price and made headlines across crypto news sites, praising WLFI’s bet.

In January, Ondo donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, securing invitations to a candlelight dinner at Washington’s National Building Museum that included several Trump Cabinet nominees. Ondo also sponsored an inaugural event called the "Crypto Ball." Soon after, Donald John Trump and WLFI’s management team headlined a conference in New York.

"We weren’t sure this moment would happen," Ondo chief strategy officer Ian De Bode said onstage. "But sometimes, things just click."

In February, Eric Trump tweeted investment advice to his followers: "In my opinion, now is a good time to buy Ethereum."

That’s the ticker symbol for the digital currency called "Ether." "You can thank me later," he added, deleting the message.

His advice proved prescient.

The next month, Trump announced the creation of the "U.S. Cryptocurrency Reserve Center," a Fort Knox-like repository for digital currencies meant to help prop up the industry.

Trump’s statement listed the digital currencies that would be included in the reserve. Besides Bitcoin, he included Ether, calling it "going to be the core of the reserve."

Ether’s price surged over 13%.

The direct beneficiary: World Liberty. Over the past several months, the firm had bought $240 million worth of Ether, according to crypto data firm Arkham.

On the day of the president’s crypto reserve announcement, assuming WLFI hadn’t sold any of its Ether holdings, their value rose by $33 million. But as Ether’s value fell, so did the gains.

The same pattern repeated in March. Trump made policy statements or released messages intersecting with WLFI’s business interests.

In a video from a crypto conference in New York, Trump called on Congress to pass legislation governing stablecoins, cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a $1 value.

Bills have been introduced in the Senate and House aimed at making it easier for companies issuing stablecoins to operate in the U.S. In his speech last month, Trump said the rise of stablecoins would "expand the dominance of the dollar."

A week later, WLFI announced its own stablecoin, USD1. "The future is here, and it’s bright!" Zach Witkoff wrote on X.

Jordi Alexander, a crypto executive who helped WLFI craft its stablecoin launch plans, said in an interview the firm had commitments of at least $1 billion from investors to buy the token once it launched.

The new venture will only heighten WLFI’s ethical conflicts. The firm plans to offer the stablecoin on a platform developed by Binance. This week, Zachary Folkman, Chase Herro, and Zach Witkoff met in Abu Dhabi with Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Zhao, serving a four-month federal prison sentence for money laundering, has been seeking a pardon from the Trump administration, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously due to the topic’s sensitivity.

The overlap between Trump’s policy statements and his business interests has alarmed congressional Democrats, who recently moved to amend pending stablecoin legislation to bar the Trump family from issuing stablecoins.

The amendment failed, but any concerns about WLFI haven’t derailed its momentum.