Trump-Backed World Liberty Puts $5.3 Million Price Tag on ‘Guaranteed Access’ to Team

World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance project backed by US President Donald Trump and his sons, approved a measure that on Friday will allow major investors to gain access to members of the team based on their financial alignment.

The shift follows a board vote concluded last week, in which 99% of participants voted in favor of changes around World Liberty Financial’s native token and USD1, a $4.5 billion stablecoin unveiled by the project nearly a year ago. (Disclosure: Myriad, a prediction market operated by Declutter‘s parent company Dastan, recently accepted USD1 as its “exclusive settlement asset.”)

Within a three-tiered framework, the measure establishes so-called supernodes, which will be “guaranteed access to the WLFI team for partnership discussions.” To reach that status, investors must lock 50 million WLFI tokens for at least 180 days.

The access includes facetime with WLFI’s business development team and executives, “not with specific founders,” WLFI spokesman David Wachman told me. Reuters. Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump are listed as co-founders in the project’s “gold paper,” as are two sons of Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East.

With WLFI recently changing hands for about $0.106 on Monday, securing supernode status would cost about $5.3 million, according to data from Coin gecko. When the token was valued at a peak of 33 cents in September, becoming a supernode would cost more than $15 million. WLFI is up about 3% over the past day, close to the broader crypto market rise over that period.

In the governance forum, WLFI described the threshold as a “filter to prioritize projects and platforms that actively support and participate in the WLFI ecosystem, rather than those seeking partnership on a purely opportunistic basis,” while citing increased interest.

Investors need 10 million WLFI – worth about $1.06 million – to qualify for the second-lowest tier, which gives ‘nodes’ the ability to exchange USD1 at par for other stablecoins via over-the-counter transactions. The project says the shift aims to refocus value “from a small number of intermediaries to long-term ecosystem participants,” while potentially squeezing demand for alternatives.

When World Liberty Financial debuted in 2024, the project was billed as a way to democratize digital finance. However, the framework approved Friday requires “stakers” to lock up their tokens for at least 180 days to participate in WLFI’s governance process.

Additionally, the project is moving forward with restrictions on staking rewards. To earn 2% annually on locked-up tokens, investors must participate in at least two board votes over a certain period of time.

WLFI opens access to its team after Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) launches an investigation into the Trump family’s crypto dealings. His calls in February were specifically aimed at a Investment of $500 million by a member of the Royal Family of the United Arab Emirates in WLFI.

Khanna expressed concern that the investment may have influenced the Trump administration’s decision to roll back restrictions and approve export licenses that once prevented the UAE from accessing tens of thousands of advanced AI chips.

The Trump family’s involvement in digital assets has drawn criticism from other influential Democrats, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, who also alarm raised regarding WLFI’s efforts to obtain a banking charter overseen by federal regulators.

“President Trump’s crypto company is now at the center of perhaps the most egregious presidential corruption scandal in American history,” Warren said. “An American president who is selling out our national security to make money for himself.”

Last week, the team behind the President’s Solana-based meme coin – a separate project from World Liberty Financial – offered exclusive access in its own way. The team teased an event with the president for top TRUMP holders, set to take place next month at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.