Morning Minute: Trump Family Makes $6B as WLFI Goes Live

Crypto majors are green and recovering coming out of the long holiday weekend, with Bitcoin touching $110,000 Tuesday morning.

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today's top news:

The Trump family has officially launched another token.

And added nearly $6B in paper wealth to the family stack.

Within hours, the token ranked among the most valuable new coins by market cap, while disclosures indicate the Trump family holds 22.5B WLFI (worth ~$6B at current prices (tokens are locked under a TBD vesting schedule).

Quick TL;DR on WLFI:

As for price action, the token opened around $0.35 before falling all the way to $0.21 and rebounding to $0.25 overnight.

A volatile start, and expect more volatility as new proposals like the late evening token buyback and burn proposal continue to push through.

“We are now live!!!! Our team has always believed in American strength and leadership. With today’s WLFI token launch, we’re setting a new standard for financial freedom; built on trust, speed, and U.S. values. This is a huge moment for the future of money!” Eric Trump on X

“Big day - World Liberty Fi just launched the $WLFI token. This isn’t some meme coin, it’s the governance backbone of a real ecosystem changing how money moves. Freedom + finance + America FIRST. Home Team” — Donald Trump, Jr. on X

The bull case for WLFI is fairly straightforward.

Few tokens launch with this level of built-in audience and national attention.

And many believe that the Trump family’s future in crypto hinges on the success (or failure) of this project.

So they’ll have every incentive to pump the token.

But on the bear side, the protocol is effectively an AAVE fork (and not even live yet!) and trading 4-5x higher.

Plus the vesting schedule is apparently TBD and can be changed via vote, meaning large unlocks could come unexpectedly.

With presalers up so much, expect more sell pressure for the near future. But if and when it finds a bottom, don’t be surprised if WLFI does go on a run.

And of course, any announcements or surprises from the team could change that trajectory…

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

In Corporate Treasuries

In Memes

Here's a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:

Section dedicated to headlines in the AI sector of crypto:

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