Trump-Linked WLFI Proposes Buyback-and-Burn Program to Curb Early Losses
World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the Trump-family-affiliated DeFi project, has proposed a buyback-and-burn program aimed at restoring investor confidence after a volatile trading debut. The plan would use all protocol-owned liquidity fees to repurchase WLFI tokens on the open market and send them to a burn address, permanently reducing supply.
The announcement comes as WLFI faces steep headwinds following its debut on major exchanges, including Binance, OKX, Upbit, Coinbase, and Bithumb. The token is currently trading near $0.23, down 24% in a single session, with a market capitalization around $6.39 billion, according to CoinGecko. At launch, WLFI briefly reached valuations exceeding $40 billion on futures markets before a sharp sell-off.
According to a governance proposal released Tuesday, the buyback-and-burn mechanism will apply only to fees generated from WLFI’s own liquidity pools on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Solana, leaving third-party and community liquidity untouched. Alternative structures, including splitting fees between treasury reserves and burns, were considered but rejected in favor of maximizing the deflationary impact.
The program is designed to reinforce long-term holder confidence. “This program removes tokens from circulation held by participants not committed to WLFI’s long-term growth,” the team noted, emphasizing alignment between token supply and protocol growth.
Separately, a community-led proposal is also circulating, suggesting that 80% of WLFI tokens remain locked and automatically staked, with rewards drawn from the remaining 20% reserve. While supporters argue this approach would reduce selling pressure and convert idle supply into productive assets, critics view it as token redistribution rather than genuine yield generation. The community plan has yet to gain traction compared with the official burn proposal.
Despite early losses and forum criticism, WLFI retains high-profile backing. Tron founder Justin Sun continues to endorse the project on X, calling it “one of the biggest and most important projects in crypto” and pledging not to sell his unlocked tokens. Arkham data indicates WLFI’s treasury holds $13.78 million in TRX, while Sun himself owns roughly $693 million in WLFI tokens, largely subject to vesting schedules that reinforce his long-term commitment to the project.
