The Trump family launched the WLFI crypto project and issue…

The Trump family launched the WLFI crypto project and issued a compliant stablecoin called USD1. On one hand, the Trump clan made money by selling WLFI tokens; on the other, they allowed users to stake WLFI to borrow USD1—a classic case of "moving money from their left hand to their right". Thanks to Trump's involvement, many individuals with criminal records invested early in the project, hoping to secure presidential pardons.

Justin Sun, known in the crypto world as "Sun the Cutter", invested $75 million specifically to obtain a pardon. He immediately became a favored guest of Trump and even served as an advisor for a period. Under the project's terms, all early investors were subject to a long-term lock-up period and could not sell their tokens; instead, they had to be gradually unlocked according to a predetermined schedule.

But Sun owned his own exchange, Huobi. As soon as WLFI listed, he launched a WLFI staking program on Huobi, offering high interest rates to attract retail investors to stake their tokens. He then took the WLFI tokens he collected from retail users, transferred them directly to CZ's Binance exchange, sold them to drive down the price, and simultaneously opened short positions to profit from the crash. This behavior sparked widespread outrage, with people denouncing and reporting him en masse on Twitter. Upon learning of this, the Trump team immediately froze the $75 million worth of WLFI tokens held by Sun. Since then, WLFI's price has plummeted continuously from its listing. Compounded by the project team itself repeatedly unlocking and selling its own tokens, Sun's initial $75 million investment—despite his low entry cost—has now fallen below his cost basis, losing more than half its value.