World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol linked to US President Donald Trump’s family, put a $5 million price tag on ‘direct access’ to team members in a near-unanimous government vote.
Token holders of the venture backed by Eric and Barron Trump passed a proposal on Friday that creates a three-tier staking system for their WLFI governance token.
The basic level requires a 180-day lock-up to vote. The node level requires staking 10 million WLFI, roughly $1 million, and allows for converting stablecoins to WLFI’s USD1 at 1:1 parity through licensed market makers. The Super Node level requires 50 million WLFI, about $5 million, and provides “guaranteed direct access to the WLFI team for partnership discussions.”
The vote passed 99.12% out of 1,800 votes cast. Over 76% of the ballots came from just 10 wallets.
WLFI spokesman David Wachsman told Reuters on Sunday that the “direct access” refers to the business development team and executives, not specific founders, and does not guarantee a partnership.
However, the company’s own Gold Paper lists co-founders Eric Trump, Barron Trump and Steven Witkoff’s sons Zach and Alex as part of the team that “supports the WLF commitment.”
The stated motivation of the proposal is to redirect value from market makers to long-term participants.
WLFI said that during its USD1 stablecoin expansion, market makers captured millions in arbitrage at about 15 basis points per share. cycle, and WLFI paid millions more in redemption grants. The Node and Super Node structure directs these economies to major players instead.
The Super Node level is where the proposal goes beyond control mechanics. WLFI currently receives “more partnership inquiries than it can productively engage with,” the proposal says.
The $5 million commitment requirement “serves as a filter to prioritize projects and platforms that actively support and participate in the WLFI ecosystem, rather than those seeking partnership on a purely opportunistic basis.”
Projects that want to talk to the team must now invest in WLFI tokens and lock them for six months. It creates buying pressure on the token, reduces the circulating supply, and generates a captive audience of large holders who are financially invested in the success of the protocol before any partnership discussion even begins.
Meanwhile, WLFI is also pursuing a national trust bank charter through the OCC, exploring tokenization of real estate and oil and gas assets, and considering the creation of a publicly traded company to hold WLFI tokens.
