Bankless Weekly Review: Trump DeFi Project WLFI is about to issue tokens

Author: David C, Bankless; Compiler: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

Bankless summarizes the major events of the past week.

1. WLFI public sale starts on October 15

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a DeFi project associated with Donald Trump, announced that its public sale will begin on Tuesday, aiming to raise $300 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion.

The sale accounts for 20% of the total token supply, with more sales planned in the future. The tokens are non-transferable for 12 months but can be used for governance immediately. The first phase includes the launch of a lending platform modeled on Aave on Scroll, with 7% of the token supply allocated to Aave DAO for governance participation and liquidity provision. Future goals include integrating real-world assets and launching a stablecoin-focused credit card.

2. Market makers face fraud charges

US prosecutors accuse Gotbit, ZM Quant, CLS Global and MyTrade of suspected market manipulation and wash trading. The operation began when the FBI launched fake tokens on Ethereum and then let the funds trade in the market. More than $25 million in cryptocurrency has been seized and four defendants have pleaded guilty.

Related news: Market maker Cumberland DRW was sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for operating as an unregistered dealer. Cumberland responded that it has been in constant communication with the SEC for the past five years and acquired a registered broker-dealer in 2019 to meet its requirements. They believe they are right, so they will not change their business despite being sued.

Three, Uniswap announced the launch of Unichain

Last Thursday, Uniswap Labs launched the highly anticipated Unichain, an upcoming L2 built using OP Stack. Unichain aims to significantly reduce transaction costs and provide near-instant block times, aiming to improve DeFi scalability and solve the problem of decentralized liquidity. In addition, when the chain is launched, UNI will be used to verify the network, and stakers will receive rewards.

Fourth, Memecoin controversy heats up

The Memecoin drama reached a fever pitch as ZachXBT released 11 secret wallets of memecoin investor Murad Mahmudov. ZachXBT argues that this transparency is essential to prevent Mahmudov from dumping on his followers, while critics say it exposes him to unnecessary risk.

The controversy echoes previous debates surrounding influencers such as Ansem, who was criticized for promoting low-market-cap tokens, most of which fell sharply in the weeks and months after his support. Both cases have sparked a new round of discussion about the ethics of using large platforms to promote volatile, illiquid assets, with some people believing that memecoin promotion is akin to pump and dump schemes, while others believe it is part of the broader crypto culture.