30s Summary

Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial has invested nearly $45 million in various cryptocurrencies in December. The recent purchases include $30 million in Ether, $10 million in Coinbase Wrapped BTC, and other digital coins including Ondo, Ethena, Chainlink and Aave. World Liberty is a decentralized crypto trading platform, where the Trump family holds 75% of the platform’s net revenues. Despite these significant purchases, World Liberty is yet to achieve its goal of selling $300 million of its own token (WLFI).

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Donald Trump’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, has been spending big on various cryptos throughout December—its current spend is closing in on a whopping $45 million, with a recent purchase of $250,000 worth of Ondo (ONDO).

Backed by a World Liberty wallet, since the end of November, the project has invested in a variety of digital coins, including $30 million in Ether (ETH), $10 million in Coinbase Wrapped BTC (cbBTC), and a selection of others. This info comes from a December 16th post by Lookonchain, a group that keeps an eye on blockchain activities, along with additional insights from Arkham Intelligence.

The most recent World Liberty purchase, according to Lookonchain, was $250,000 of Ondo (ONDO), about a day after it picked up $500,000 of Ethena (ENA). It had also bought $2 million each of Chainlink (LINK) and Aave (AAVE), bringing the project spending total for December to nearly $45 million.

World Liberty Financial was introduced back in September and is a decentralized trading platform for cryptos. Trump is its self-proclaimed “chief crypto advocate,” and his sons, Donald Jr, Eric, and Barron, are listed as “ambassadors.” The Trump family company holds claim to 75% of the platform’s net revenues.

Bloomberg recently received comments from Nicolai Søndergaard, a research analyst at Nansen, who suggested that the considerable crypto purchases by World Liberty could be a way to gain trust or boost the project by drawing attention to the purchased assets, thus giving the project a potential boost if these assets do well.

The venture has yet to reach its goal for the sale of its own token, the World Liberty Financial (WLFI). So far, it’s sold less than a quarter of the $300 million WLFI it intended to sell. But it did get a helping hand last month when Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain, invested $30 million and became the biggest investor in the project. He was then later on-boarded as an adviser.

Even with these advances, World Liberty floated a proposal that was accepted by AaveDAO, the collective behind the DeFi protocol Aave. The proposal allows World Liberty to launch an Aave instance—essentially its own version of the protocol. This would allow for the borrowing and lending of Ether, Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), and stablecoins like USD Coin (USDC) and Tether (USDT). The agreement also gives AaveDAO 20% of the fees generated and offers 7% of WLFI’s supply, which amounts to about $21 million.

World Liberty Financial has yet to respond to requests for comment.