Sun Yuchen × Trump Family WLFI Storm: A Power Struggle and Retail Investor Bloodbath

The glamour in front of the banquet and the undercurrents beneath the chain.

On September 7, a luxurious dinner in Miami had just concluded, and the close-up photo of Sun Yuchen with Eric Trump was still making waves, while the token WLFI (World Liberty Financial) associated with the Trump family had already surged by 12%. Behind this meticulously designed "political endorsement show" lies a colder structural fact: only 8% of WLFI is in circulation, with a total supply of 100 billion tokens, and 92% is locked up and effectively controlled by the family. This extreme concentration is reminiscent of the manipulation allegations surrounding the Trump Coin (TRUMP) in 2025, which arose due to a few addresses holding a large amount of tokens. What retail investors are chasing is not just the token, but also a blind faith in the "presidential family halo."

On-chain data won't be whitewashed. Two hours after the dinner, two addresses marked as related to Sun Yuchen began intensive transfers, totaling 800 million WLFI being split and sent to exchanges. Estimated at about 0.25 yuan each at the time, this converted to approximately 2 billion yuan. This method mirrors his "high-level split shipment" with TRON (TRX) in 2017—back then, he dumped 6 billion TRX through affiliated accounts, earning about 300 million dollars, later justifying it as "market making." After this round of market plummeting by 16%, retail investors finally woke up: the "strategic partners" in the group photo had long buried the harvesting program on-chain.

Twelve hours of turning face: from embracing joy to having wallets frozen

Starting at two in the morning, Eric's team quickly cleared interactions and group photos from social media platforms, and Sun Yuchen was also absent from the Twitter following list. This almost severing operation reveals the Trump family's sensitivity to uncontrollable risks—according to the WLFI project agreement, the family can take 75% of the project's net income through DT Marks DEFI LLC, while Sun Yuchen's private selling directly affects the core profits. What's more troublesome is that the U.S. SEC has recently intensified its regulation of "politician-backed tokens"; previously, the TRUMP token faced scrutiny from Bloomberg due to 80% of its chips being concentrated. Now, with renewed negativity, it is highly likely to trigger an investigation.

Three hours later, the preset mechanism was implemented: the foundation controlled by the family used the smart contract authority to freeze two key wallets of Sun Yuchen, locking 1.42 billion WLFI (worth about 3.5 billion RMB at that time) on the chain. This is not a loophole, but rather the "abnormal transaction intervention clause" stated in the white paper. Therefore, the family was able to "precisely eliminate" in a short period of time. The market chain reaction quickly spread: TRON (TRX) fell 7% in a single day, dropping to the $0.22 range, showing the interconnected risk of the crypto market; while WLFI's price on Coinbase plummeted from 0.000032 Argentine Pesos to 0.00000465, nearly reaching zero, leaving speculators with nothing.

Three suspenseful elements: backstab, regulation, or a double act?

The focus of this drama goes far beyond "brothers turning against each other."
- Backstabbing theory: Supporters believe that Sun Yuchen broke the market "pump and dump agreement" - from TRX to WLFI, he consistently leveraged celebrity influence to drive up prices and then seized the opportunity to sell; this time, he misjudged the family's determination to control the market.
- Regulatory hedging statement: The focus is on potential actions by the SEC - The Trump family has accumulated nearly $1 billion in profits through crypto projects before the 2024 election; if the actions of the grandson cause trouble, the costs will far exceed the profits.
- The joint speculation is even more intriguing: after the freeze statement, WLFI's 24-hour trading volume surged by 300% against the trend, reaching 160 million Argentine pesos. The market behavior of "buying the dip" is quite similar to the characteristics of the capital market before the collapse of the Tron super community in 2019. Some viewpoints suggest that the family may leverage the freeze action to create a "compliance image," while simultaneously recovering chips amidst the panic selling.

Who will be the final loser?

For Sun Yuchen, the pressure is coming from both sides: 3.5 billion equivalent assets are locked, and liquidity is in urgent need; the continued decline of TRX is eroding its balance sheet; more critically, the past "harvesting records" (from the TRON super community to BitTorrent token controversies) combined with this case has nearly exhausted its credit. Although the Trump family appears to be in control, the collapse of WLFI has severely impacted its crypto layout; once the SEC intervenes, the 75% profit-sharing design may be classified as an illegal financial arrangement.

As for retail investors, remember three cold rules in the end:
- The "platform effect" of celebrity photos cannot withstand on-chain evidence (Eric's unfollowing, soon to be followed by a market reversal).
- When 8% of the circulating supply moves billions in market value (WLFI's peak circulating market value is about 25 billion), the price fluctuations only depend on the strength of the manipulators' fingers.
- Political coins are essentially emotional derivatives; the "Web3 Ambassador" label is often just a gilded shell for the harvester.

The power game is not over yet. Will Sun Yuchen replay the PR template of "shifting blame to market makers"? Can the Trump family quell the storm through "regulatory separation"? Regardless of the answers, the vertical drop on the K-line has already penned the harshest annotation.
#孙宇晨 $WLFI $TRX # Trump