WLFI token falls 18% as governance vote branded a ‘scam’

The price of World Liberty Financial’s (WLFI) token has fallen 18% after the Trump-linked firm successfully passed its token locking proposal. However, the vote, which passed in just 15 minutes, has drawn criticism with suspicious onlookers claiming that it was rigged.

While the vote passed with 6.6 billion WLFI tokens, only 3.3 million WLFI tokens were attributed to “No” votes. 

The largest No voter held 569,900 WLFI tokens. The largest four Yes voters together held 2.5 billion WLFI tokens, almost 40% of the entire vote. 

Onlookers noted that the vote passed within minutes, and that by the 15-minute mark, it had achieved 1.5 billion votes and passed with a 148% Quorum, beating its May 6 deadline.  

Read more: Justin Sun goes to war with World Liberty Financial

The proposal will keep 17 billion early supporter WLFI tokens from being tradeable for another two years. After this, a two-year “linear vest” will take place, where the tokens will be gradually unlocked for the market. 

This means some early investors will have to wait another four years to see the entirety of their WLFI tokens unlocked.

Yes votes were also practically coerced into voting, as WLFI stated that token holders voting against “will continue to be locked indefinitely,” and restricted to just governance vote participation. 

The vote wasn’t well-received 

In the WLFI forum, there’s a mix of support and discontent over the two-year locking schedule and two-year vesting period.  

Some outright called WLFI a “scammer.” This response was also common across X in response to WLFI’s announcement. 

Indeed, some users implied that the vote wasn’t democratic and that it was already predetermined. One user mocked the project for suggesting it was “community governance.”

As crypto trader White Whale said, “Proposal: agree with our absurd plan or lose your tokens forever.”

Read more: WLFI investor offers to help Justin Sun to avoid ‘lengthy litigation’

One of WLFI’s biggest former supporters, Tron CEO Justin Sun, is now suing the firm over its blacklisting of his tokens. 

Earlier this month, Sun said, “This proposal is bad for the community, but because World Liberty has frozen my early investor tokens, I cannot vote them for or against the proposal.”

The crypto billionaire wants WLFI to stop blacklisting his tokens, and he’s also worried that the project will burn his tokens.

WLFI has got even more problems

Beyond investor contempt for its token unlocking schedules, WLFI was also recently linked to a Southeast Asian criminal syndicate.

Last year, WLFI partnered with crypto firm AB, which was overseeing a blockchain-themed resort in East Timor that was being led by two sanctioned men. 

The resort’s controlling shareholder Yang Jian and its General Manager Yang Yanming were sanctioned by the US last October as part of a crackdown on the billion dollar overseas crypto scam industry and the Prince Group conglomerate. 

Read more: Cambodia has deported 48K foreigners since scam center crackdown began

The pair is no longer a part of AB. WLFI told The Wall Street Journal that it never held a relationship with the pair, nor did it know about the resort. 

WLFI also downplayed the partnership to a “limited non-exclusive technology integration,” and claimed that its due diligence was proportional to its arrangement.

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