World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance (DeFi) project backed by President Donald Trump’s family, snatched up more than $20 million worth of digital assets ahead of the White House’s first crypto summit on March 7.
According to Bloomberg, a digital wallet tied to World Liberty acquired $10.1 million worth of Ether (ETH), $9.9 million worth of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and $1.68 million of Movement Network’s MOVE token two days before the summit.
The Trump family launched World Liberty Financial in September during the lead-up to the US presidential election. Once it becomes fully operational, World Liberty claims it will allow crypto holders to buy, sell and earn interest on their holdings without centralized intermediaries.
In January, President Trump’s son, Eric Trump, said World LIberty “will revolutionize DeFi/CeFi and will be the future of finance.”
However, the project isn’t without controversy. In February, a Blockworks report claimed that World Liberty was floating the sale of its forthcoming WLFI tokens to other projects in exchange for purchasing their tokens.
Cointelegraph reached out to some of the projects that allegedly received the token swap offer, with one project confirming that no offer was tabled.
World Liberty clarified on social media that “we are not selling any tokens [but] simply reallocating assets for ordinary business purposes.”
Related: Trump’s WLF bags over $100M in crypto tokens on inauguration day
Peculiar timing
Although World Liberty is no stranger to cryptocurrency acquisitions — the company held more than 66,000 ETH at the end of January — the timing of the latest purchase coincides with the highly anticipated White House crypto summit on March 7.
The summit, which is the first of its kind, will feature roundtable discussions between crypto industry leaders and members of President Trump’s Working Group on Digital Assets.
Adding to the intrigue was crypto czar David Sacks, who took to social media on March 6 to lament the US government’s ill-timed sales of Bitcoin (BTC) in the past.
The US government earned $366 million in proceeds on its past Bitcoin sales, but that stockpile would be “worth over $17 billion today,” said Sacks.
“That’s how much it cost American taxpayers not having a long-term strategy,” he said.
The comments came amid growing speculation that the Trump administration would formally recommend establishing a strategic crypto reserve with a special status given to Bitcoin.
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