Tokenholders of US President Donald Trump-backed crypto project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) have voted to make them tradable, opening the door for the Trump-linked token to increase in value.
The proposal submitted by the WLFI team on July 9 closed on Wednesday, with an “overwhelming” 99.94% in favor of the unlock. It will make the platform’s governance token tradable through peer-to-peer transactions and secondary markets.
“Following the vote to make the token tradable, WLFI’s governance framework will enable more tokenholders to participate directly in protocol decisions,” the WLFI team said in the proposal.
“This includes voting on emissions, ecosystem incentives, and future treasury actions. This proposal is the first step in handing greater influence to the community.”
Token unlock will come in stages, launch plan coming soon
Not all the governance tokens will be unlocked at once, according to the WLFI team, and a full launch plan is coming soon, according to WLFI’s post on X on Wednesday.
The WLFI team outlined in the original proposal that as part of the initial unlock, only “a portion” of the tokens sold to early supporters will be eligible to be traded.
“The remainder of the tokens will be subject to a second vote by the community to determine the unlock and release schedule,” the team said.
Founders, team, and adviser tokens will also not be unlocked. They will be subject to a longer schedule: timing and any eligibility requirements are yet to be determined.
World Liberty sold WLFI tokens in two tranches. One opened in October 2024 and sold 20 billion for $0.015 each, netting the company about $300 million.
The second opened in January and charged $0.05 per token, which saw another five billion tokens sold, generating $250 million in sales.
Transition from closed to open
The token unlock is part of a broader plan to transition from being a closed network to “open participation,” the WLFI team said.
Making the tokens tradable will also likely open the door to speculation and price discovery.
Once the tokens become tradable, the team said it will continue ecosystem expansion and align long-term token incentives with protocol adoption.
Related: Trump memecoin wallet in ‘absolute chaos’ as family org unaware of launch
Blockchain intelligence platform TRM Labs has been tapped to provide transaction monitoring.
Trump family reducing WLFI stake
WLFI launched on Sept. 16, 2024 and was endorsed by Donald Trump and his sons — Eric, Donald Jr. and Barron Trump.
The president reported a $57 million profit from WLFI in a June financial disclosure with the US Office of Government Ethics; however, the Trump family has also reportedly reduced its stake in the platform since December 2024, holding 40% of the company as of June.
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