World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the DeFi project tied to the family of U.S. President Donald Trump, has approved a controversial governance change that effectively sells “direct access” to the protocol’s team to large WLFI stakers — for about $5 million.
In an almost unanimous vote on Friday, token holders backed a three-tier staking structure for WLFI’s governance token. The measure passed with 99.12% approval out of roughly 1,800 votes cast — but voting power was highly concentrated: more than 76% of the tokens used in the vote came from just 10 wallets.
What the new tiers do
- Base: A standard governance tier that requires a 180-day token lock-up to be eligible to vote.
- Node: Requires staking 10 million WLFI (about $1 million) and gives stakers the ability to convert stablecoins to WLFI at a $1 parity via licensed market makers.
- Super Node: Requires 50 million WLFI (about $5 million) and promises “guaranteed direct access to the WLFI team for partnership discussions.”
WLFI spokesman David Wachsman told Reuters the advertised “direct access” is to the business development team and executives — not to specific founders — and that it does not guarantee a commercial partnership. WLFI’s own Gold Paper, however, lists co-founders Eric Trump and Barron Trump alongside Zach and Alex Witkoff (sons of developer Steven Witkoff) as members of the team “supporting the WLF commitment.”
Why WLFI says it made the change
The proposal frames the new Node and Super Node levels as a way to redirect economic value away from market makers and toward long-term ecosystem participants. WLFI said that during its USD1 stablecoin expansion, market makers captured millions in arbitrage at roughly 15 basis points per cycle, while WLFI paid out millions in redemption subsidies. Under the new structure, those economics are routed to large stakers instead.
The Super Node tier also functions as a filter for partnership requests. The proposal notes WLFI receives far more inquiries than it can pursue, and the $5 million lock-up is intended to prioritize projects “actively supporting and participating in the WLFI ecosystem” rather than opportunistic suitors. In practice, prospective partners must now buy and lock WLFI for six months — a mechanism that could create buying pressure, reduce circulating supply, and concentrate influence among financially committed holders.
Other WLFI plans
Separately, WLFI is pursuing a national trust bank charter through the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), exploring tokenization of real estate and oil & gas assets, and is weighing the creation of a publicly traded company to hold WLFI tokens.
The move highlights debates unfolding across crypto governance circles about the line between incentive design and pay-for-access, and underscores how governance votes can be shaped by a small number of large holders.
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