Allegations emerged that World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a cryptocurrency project linked to President Donald Trump and his family, proposed a token swap arrangement to multiple protocol teams, requiring a substantial buy-in to join the project's treasury. However, representatives from two protocols with tokens in WLFI's treasury have refuted the existence of such an agreement.
According to a report by Blockworks, WLFI representatives had proposed a deal where protocol teams could secure a spot in WLFI's treasury by purchasing $10 million in WLFI tokens plus an additional 10 percent fee. In return, WLFI would acquire an equivalent amount of the protocol's tokens. This deal was reportedly pitched as a means to get included in the project's treasury holdings.
A spokesperson from TRON, which has the second-largest token holding in WLFI's wallet, told CoinDesk, "There is no token swap agreement." On-chain data from Arkham Intelligence indicates that the WLFI wallet currently possesses 40.7 million TRX tokens, valued at approximately $9.3 million. These tokens were acquired in multiple transactions throughout January.
Similarly, Movement Labs, whose MOVE token experienced a surge in late January following WLFI's $2 million purchase, also denied any swap deal. Rumors had circulated that Movement Labs was in talks with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, but these were not substantiated. Rushi Manche, co-founder of Movement Labs, clarified the situation to CoinDesk, stating, "There weren't any deals — any back door deals. It was purely just market buying," emphasizing that the tokens were not sent to WLFI or any other parties as part of a swap.
The denial by both TRON and Movement Labs challenges the claims made in the Blockworks report and provides clarity on the nature of WLFI's token acquisitions. As it stands, the protocols involved have publicly dissociated themselves from any formal token swap agreements with WLFI.
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