World Liberty Financial, the Crypto Project Backed by Donald Trump, Has Been Buying Millions of Dollars Worth of ETH

The startup has made 146 swaps using CoW Swap, a platform that seeks to find a "coincidence of wants" between users to find the lowest possible execution price.

A wallet linked to the World Liberty Financial crypto project, which is backed by President-elect Donald Trump, has purchased $5 million worth of ETH on Wednesday, according to onchain data. This brings the project’s total ETH balance to over $50 million, having purchased the majority of this ETH over the last several weeks.

The wallet, beginning 0x5be9a495, made three separate transactions to receive 1,285 ETH tokens from CoW Swap, a popular decentralized exchange, roughly four hours ago. ETH is currently trading hands at around $3,800, according to The Block's price page.

The wallet appears to be purchasing this ETH with proceeds from the ongoing WLFI token sale, largely via its large stablecoin holdings. The startup also appears to be sending funds from the World Liberty contract address, beginning 0xe217e15b, directly to the wallet, which has no outflowing transactions.

Swapping stablecoins for ETH could indicate that World Liberty Financial is aiming to engage further with the broader crypto economy. It may also suggest that the team believes ETH is a better reserve asset than the U.S. dollar.

“Any stables they get they are flipping for ETH,” noted Eric Conner, a prominent Ethereum investor and advisor who first spotted the transactions, told The Block via direct message. “The Trumps are clearly swapping these stables for ETH instead of just sitting in stables.”

World Liberty's terms and conditions state that the limited liability company set up by the Trump family to manage the project will receive 75% of the proceeds from the sale of WLFI tokens and can manage the treasury as it sees fit.

According to Arkham Research, the 0x5be9a495 World Liberty wallet holds nearly $73 million worth of cryptocurrencies. This includes over $50 million in ETH, $10 million in Coinbase's wrapped bitcoin token, cbUSD, and lesser amounts of various altcoins, in addition to $8 million USDC and $3 million USDT stablecoins.

Over the course of its short existence, World Liberty has made 146 swaps using CoW Swap, a platform that aims to find a "coincidence of wants" between users to achieve the lowest possible execution price.

World Liberty's purchase on Wednesday is one of its largest transactions in recent weeks. The project also purchased around 2,000 ETH nine days ago and nearly 3,000 ETH 12 days ago, both times using CoW Swap.

World Liberty began selling tokens on Oct. 15, a few months after Trump’s son Eric announced the project in August. The team has sold over $55 million worth of WLFI tokens, falling short of the $300 million the DeFi project expected to raise, according to Dune Analytics.

The project accepts ETH, USDC and USDT in exchange for WLFI. In the U.S., the sale is limited to accredited investors who have had an annual income of at least $200,000 for two years — or $300,000 with a spouse or partner — and a net worth of at least $1 million.

Trump, who was previously skeptical of bitcoin, expressed strong support for the crypto industry during his campaign for reelection. In addition to vowing to fire U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler (a moot point now) and release Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht "on day one," Trump recently appointed podcaster David Sachs to his cabinet as the newly created “Crypto Czar.”

He also stated that the World Liberty lending and borrowing platform will "help make America the crypto capital of the world."