Is World Liberty Financial actually Trump’s strategic crypto reserve?

World Liberty Financial has been busy buying crypto ahead of its launch

article-image

T. Schneider/Shutterstock/modified by Blockworks

share


This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.


Anthony Bourdain would famously go to great lengths to avoid and outwit a guy inside him who wanted to rot in bed all day.

I do something similar with my inner contrarian. But I can’t help it with this one: The crypto portfolio of Trump-linked DeFi platform World Liberty Financial could very well turn out to be the crypto strategic reserve that many anticipate will soon be announced. 

And it’s already getting messy.

To the conspiracy theorist that sometimes types for me — like the rat in Ratatouille — there are obvious signs.

Donald Trump Jr. perhaps let it slip on X. To commemorate Trump Sr.’s second inauguration on Monday, becoming the 45th and 47th US president, World Liberty Financial made a series of what it called “strategic purchases” of various coins.

Loading Tweet..

Deep thinkers would quickly spot that one of those coins is not like the others. 

World Liberty Financial runs on Ethereum — so ETH makes sense. Trump has also done well courting the Bitcoiners, so wBTC gets a green check as a DeFi-compatible nod to the real thing. 

So does AAVE, LINK and ENA. Platforms tied to all three coins are expected to integrate with World Liberty Financial whenever it goes live.

But why TRX?

(The conspiracist in me is now screaming about the $30 million plowed into the World Liberty Financial token sale by Tron founder Justin Sun last month. And the curious switch from cbBTC to WBTC amid that drama. Ignore him.)

Loading Tweet..
He somehow snuck this one through

For what it’s worth, if World Liberty Financial really is the US crypto strategic reserve in disguise, it’s doing pretty well so far. 

It has spent $220.1 million on crypto since the end of November. Now it’s worth $234 million, putting it over 6% ahead, with gains made on BTC, ETH and AAVE against losses in TRX, ENA and ONDO.

Maybe let it cook.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template (10).png

Research

Innovations on Aptos’ technical design through Raptr, Shardines, and Zaptos approach near-optimal latency and throughput by unlocking 100% utilization of network resources, with the capacity to settle 260k transactions per second with latencies less than 800ms. The original Move language was revamped with the launch of Move 2, supporting more expressivity in smart contract logic and a scalable ability to interact with high volume datasets. The ecosystem has benefitted from strong asset inflows, now hosting over $1.3B in stablecoins, $450M in bridged BTC, and $530M in RWAs. Activity in the Aptos ecosystem has grown notably over the past year, with monthly application revenue reaching ~$835k and monthly DEX volumes growing to over $5B, both at new all time highs.

article-image

Interchain Labs will focus on sovereign L1s and institutional demand, abandoning plans for smart contracts on the Cosmos Hub

article-image

Also, only three tokens have outperformed bitcoin so far this year: XMR, HYPE and SKY

article-image

The fund group has submitted proposals in recent months for other funds that would hold litecoin, solana, XRP, HBAR, Sui and others

article-image

Momentum’s back — BTC leads, risk assets follow

article-image

Ondo Finance’s acquisition of blockchain development company Strangelove follows its buy of Oasis Pro

article-image

Cryptocurrency and stock traders alike had a lot to unpack Wednesday