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

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

January 21, 2025 11:00 am

T. Schneider/Shutterstock/modified by Blockworks

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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.

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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.

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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.)

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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.

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