World Liberty Financial (WLF), the cryptocurrency firm co-founded by the Trump family, has announced a significant deal with ALT5 Sigma Corporation that establishes a $1.5 billion crypto treasury for its proprietary token, WLFI. The move, which provides the first formal valuation for the WLFI token, has intensified scrutiny over potential conflicts of interest between the business and the White House.
In a deal announced on Monday, August 11, 2025, Nasdaq-listed ALT5 Sigma Corporation will issue 200,000 new shares. According to a report from Yahoo Finance, the proceeds will be used to purchase $1.5 billion worth of the WLFI token. The transaction values each WLFI token at $0.20. This is the first time a price has been publicly assigned to the token since World Liberty Financial sold $550 million worth to investors between October 2024 and March 2025.
The arrangement effectively transforms ALT5 into a proxy investment for the WLFI token, allowing investors to gain exposure through the traditional stock market. This “crypto treasury” model was popularized by the company Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), which saw its stock price soar after it began acquiring Bitcoin. A wave of companies has since followed this playbook, particularly under the current pro-crypto administration.
As part of the agreement, several World Liberty Financial executives will join the ALT5 board of directors. These include WLF CEO Zach Witkoff, who will serve as chairman, COO Zak Folkman, and Eric Trump, the president’s son. This leadership integration has fueled concerns from ethics watchdogs and market analysts.
Critics argue the deal creates a self-reinforcing financial loop. “The funding from the World Liberty Financial investment is being used to buy the product of World Liberty Financial: the token,” Michael Green, chief strategist at Simplify asset management, told WIRED. “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 Trump family’s financial stake in the venture is substantial. According to a New York Times investigation cited on Wikipedia, a Trump-affiliated entity owns 60% of World Liberty Financial and is entitled to 75% of all revenue from coin sales. The family was also given 22.5 billion WLFI tokens. This structure has led to accusations that foreign entities or individuals could seek to curry favor with the administration by investing in ALT5, thereby boosting the value of the Trump family’s holdings.
The White House has dismissed these allegations. “The media’s continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the public’s distrust in what they read,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “Neither the President nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest.”
The WLFI token was initially designed as a governance token, allowing holders to vote on protocol changes. However, in July 2025, holders voted to make the token tradable on secondary markets, with trading expected to commence as soon as the end of August. The ALT5 treasury is seen by some as a mechanism to provide buying pressure and support the token’s price once it becomes liquid.
This is not the first time WLF’s activities have drawn controversy. The company’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, USD1, was used in a $2 billion deal by an Abu Dhabi state-backed firm to invest in the crypto exchange Binance. Furthermore, prominent crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, who invested $75 million in WLFI, was reportedly under investigation by the SEC before the case was dropped shortly after President Trump took office, raising further questions about the intersection of the family’s business and official government policy.
