World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency business cofounded by the Trump family, is creating a way for investors to speculate on the price of its self-branded coin, WLFI, through the US stock market.
A cohort of investors led by World Liberty Financial is set to purchase 200 million shares in ALT5 Sigma Corporation, a Nasdaq-listed company. The proceeds will be used to build a $1.5 billion WLFI treasury, equating to roughly 7.5 percent of the coin’s total supply.
Eric Trump will join the ALT5 board of directors, which will be chaired by fellow World Liberty Financial cofounder Zach Witkoff, son of Steve Witkoff, who was appointed special envoy to the Middle East by US president Donald Trump.
ALT5 is marketed as a crypto payments company. But in practice, the deal will turn the stock into a sort of proxy for the WLFI coin, allowing investors to bet on the asset without the hassle and risk that comes with holding a crypto coin themselves.
“One small step for mankind, one giant leap for WLFI,” wrote World Liberty Financial in an X post.
However, the arrangement has drawn criticism from those who regard it as an example of self-serving Wall Street gymnastics that can lead to losses among unsophisticated investors, even if it doesn’t break any official rules.
“This is the classic Wall Street experience—meaning Wall Street gains your money, and you gain experience," claims Michael Green, chief strategist at asset management firm Simplify. “The funding from the World Liberty Financial investment is being used to buy the product of World Liberty Financial: the token. What you are effectively doing is building a holding company whose sole objective is to create a treasury that can inflate the market capitalization of World Liberty Financial's token.”
The deal has also reignited conflict of interest concerns that have trailed World Liberty Financial since Trump returned to the White House in January.
A company affiliated with the president and his family controls both 22.5 percent of WLFI coins and a 40 percent equity stake in World Liberty Financial. In theory, a politically motivated actor could curry favor with the US president by investing heavily in ALT5, thereby driving up the price of the stock—which sits on the World Liberty Financial balance sheet—and signaling demand for the WLFI coin, perhaps catalyzing further trading from which the Trump family would benefit.
“If you happen to visit Donald Trump and say ‘by the way, I love that company that you are involved with World Liberty Financial, I just bought a billion dollars of it,’ my guess is you're going to get more attention than you otherwise might,” says Green.
ALT5 and World Liberty Financial did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
“The media's continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the public's distrust in what they read,” says Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary. “Neither the President nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest.”