Donald Trump Backed World Liberty Financial's Big Bet on AAVE, ETH and LINK

By Vismaya V

It's been a big week of DeFi news for the Donald Trump-backed crypto venture, World Liberty Financial (WLFI). Earlier this week, the project expanded its portfolio with $5 million worth of investment in three major assets: Ethereum (ETH), Chainlink (LINK), and Aave (AAVE).

The acquisitions include 2,631 ETH at $3,801 each, 41,335 LINK at $24.2, and 3,357 AAVE at $297.8, according to on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain.

The purchases mark WLFI’s first foray into LINK and AAVE, diversifying its growing treasury. In fact, since the investment, LINK has soared to a 3-year high amid growing open interest in futures contracts.

What's more, the project's community has now approved a proposal to launch an instance of the Aave v3. It will initially support borrowing and lending for Ethereum (ETH) and Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), and stablecoins Tether (USDT) and USDC.

The arrangement will see AaveDAO receive 7% of the circulating supply of WLFI tokens. The DAO will also receive 20% of all fees generated by the new instance, the proposal said.

Meanwhile, World Liberty Financial is already leveraging Chainlink for data accuracy and cross-chain connectivity. Last month,  its governance community proposed launching an Aave v3 protocol on Ethereum.

“I think it is a play at supporting the assets that their DeFi platform will be using, Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at Nansen, told Decrypt. “Chainlink will provide the interoperability infrastructure, and the project is launching on Aave v3, which is on Ethereum.”

The news about World Liberty Financial's purchases and new Aave v3 instance come as DeFi tokens are seeing impressive gains. LINK and AAVE have surged by 23% and 44% in the past week, respectively. Meanwhile, Ethereum made its own run and nearly retook $4,000 on Thursday, according to CoinGecko data.

The World Liberty Financial protocol now holds over $50 million in ETH and approximately $74 million in cryptos, including wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) and stablecoins such as USDC and USDT, as per data provided by blockchain intelligence service Arkham Intelligence.

Arthur Azizov, CEO of B2BINPAY, noted the importance of Ethereum to projects like World Liberty Financial: “Ethereum powers a wide range of dApps across gaming, gambling, socializing, NFTs, and DeFi,” Azizov told Decrypt. “With constant innovation and new projects emerging on its platform—even Tether Treasury printing billions of USDT on Ethereum—its token price is likely to continue rising. I expect Ethereum to reach $7,000 in 2025.”

Initially unveiled by Donald Trump’s son Eric Trump in August 2024, World Liberty Financial is billed as a “one-stop shop” for crypto borrowing and lending services.

President-elect Donald Trump’s embrace of crypto has been one of the more unexpected narratives of his re-election campaign.

Once a vocal critic of Bitcoin, Trump has pivoted to champion the crypto industry, pledging to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler, reform crypto regulations, and even free Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.

Since Trump’s re-election, he has doubled down on his pro-crypto stance, appointing several crypto advocates to high-profile positions. These include the new SEC Chair Paul Atkins and Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz as the next Attorney General.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.

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