World Liberty Financial (WLFI), held by entities associated with the Trump family, officially opened for trading on September 1, reaching a market capitalization of nearly $5.6 billion, just $300 million short of surpassing the world's largest DEX, Uniswap. However, the market is filled with doubts about the reasonableness of this valuation—what exactly has WLFI delivered?
WLFI Delivered Products and Features
As of now, the core delivery of WLFI includes:
Governance voting rights: Holders can vote on proposals, such as the decision to make the token tradable in July.
USD1 stablecoin: Custodied by BitGo and has been launched on exchanges like Binance.
Planned Aave v3 market: has passed Aave governance checkpoint, but there is currently no frontend or formal deployment available for users.
These features are not new in the DeFi space, and currently, WLFI holders do not have direct protocol revenue sharing, fee discounts, or other economic rights.
Valuation and Market Comparison
WLFI's current market capitalization is higher than that of several mature DeFi projects, including Aave, Lido, Curve, ThorChain, etc. These protocols have introduced multiple innovative features over the years and have a large user base.
Market capitalization ranking: WLFI is second only to Uniswap, ahead of most top DeFi protocols.
Valuation controversy: Compared to mature agreements, WLFI lacks verifiable on-chain revenue and active application scenarios.
Ownership and Incentive Mechanism
According to reports, the Trump family holds nearly 25% of the WLFI token supply through affiliated entities.
DT Marks DEFI LLC holds equity and revenue rights in WLFI and has profited hundreds of millions of dollars from related businesses. These earnings are related to the operating company and are not directly enjoyed by WLFI token holders.
Innovation and Future Challenges
The differentiation of WLFI is more reflected in branding and distribution, rather than in technical design.
Lack of innovation: The current governance model, custodial stablecoins, and planned markets are all combinations of existing models.
Potential breakthrough: If governance voting can be directly linked to protocol fees and risk parameters in the future, and verifiable on-chain income distribution is provided, it may truly enhance the utility and valuation support of the token.
Conclusion
WLFI, based on governance voting and the USD1 stablecoin, has achieved remarkable market capitalization performance in brand and capital market operations, but still shows weakness in product delivery and technological innovation. For a DeFi project with a market capitalization of 5.6 billion dollars, the market expectations are not just for "tradable governance tokens" but for providing holders with substantial economic value and verifiable on-chain applications. Whether WLFI can move from brand aura to truly being a core infrastructure of DeFi in the future will determine whether its valuation can be sustained.
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The WLFI, backed by the Trump family, has seen its market capitalization soar to 5.6 billion dollars, but what has it really delivered?
World Liberty Financial (WLFI), held by entities associated with the Trump family, officially opened for trading on September 1, reaching a market capitalization of nearly $5.6 billion, just $300 million short of surpassing the world's largest DEX, Uniswap. However, the market is filled with doubts about the reasonableness of this valuation—what exactly has WLFI delivered?
WLFI Delivered Products and Features
As of now, the core delivery of WLFI includes:
Governance voting rights: Holders can vote on proposals, such as the decision to make the token tradable in July.
USD1 stablecoin: Custodied by BitGo and has been launched on exchanges like Binance.
Planned Aave v3 market: has passed Aave governance checkpoint, but there is currently no frontend or formal deployment available for users.
These features are not new in the DeFi space, and currently, WLFI holders do not have direct protocol revenue sharing, fee discounts, or other economic rights.
Valuation and Market Comparison
WLFI's current market capitalization is higher than that of several mature DeFi projects, including Aave, Lido, Curve, ThorChain, etc. These protocols have introduced multiple innovative features over the years and have a large user base.
Market capitalization ranking: WLFI is second only to Uniswap, ahead of most top DeFi protocols.
Valuation controversy: Compared to mature agreements, WLFI lacks verifiable on-chain revenue and active application scenarios.
Ownership and Incentive Mechanism
According to reports, the Trump family holds nearly 25% of the WLFI token supply through affiliated entities.
DT Marks DEFI LLC holds equity and revenue rights in WLFI and has profited hundreds of millions of dollars from related businesses. These earnings are related to the operating company and are not directly enjoyed by WLFI token holders.
Innovation and Future Challenges
The differentiation of WLFI is more reflected in branding and distribution, rather than in technical design.
Lack of innovation: The current governance model, custodial stablecoins, and planned markets are all combinations of existing models.
Potential breakthrough: If governance voting can be directly linked to protocol fees and risk parameters in the future, and verifiable on-chain income distribution is provided, it may truly enhance the utility and valuation support of the token.
Conclusion
WLFI, based on governance voting and the USD1 stablecoin, has achieved remarkable market capitalization performance in brand and capital market operations, but still shows weakness in product delivery and technological innovation. For a DeFi project with a market capitalization of 5.6 billion dollars, the market expectations are not just for "tradable governance tokens" but for providing holders with substantial economic value and verifiable on-chain applications. Whether WLFI can move from brand aura to truly being a core infrastructure of DeFi in the future will determine whether its valuation can be sustained.