The private mansion by Miami Beach is illuminated as if it were daytime, with waiters weaving among the shadows of palm trees, and the opened champagne glistens with an amber hue under the crystal chandelier. On the evening of September 7, Sun Yuchen, dressed in a custom crocodile leather suit, had a pleasant conversation with Donald Trump's second son, Eric Trump, at the main table. A photo capturing the two with arms around each other was taken by guests — in the picture, Eric points to Sun Yuchen's TRX badge on his chest, smiling broadly, as if they are long-time close friends.
This private dinner, dubbed the 'century meeting between the crypto circle and the political circle,' had fewer than 30 actual attendees. However, when Sun Yuchen's team posted the group photo on social media with the caption 'Partners in the new era,' it immediately stirred up huge waves in the cryptocurrency market. The token WLFI, associated with the Trump family, skyrocketed in a straight line within half an hour, showing a significant daily increase, and its market value rapidly expanded, with a steep upward green line on trading software.
Cryptocurrency investor Zhang Ming (pseudonym) stared at his phone screen, his knuckles whitening from the force. He saw a video on social media of Eric toasting with Sun Yuchen, and the comments claiming "Trump concept coins will replicate the Dogecoin myth" felt like a stimulant. Without much thought, he mortgaged his property for cash and entered WLFI with his entire position at the market's highest heat. That night, over 12,000 retail investors like Zhang Ming jumped in, and trading platform data showed a 370% increase in new holding addresses within 24 hours, causing the backend servers to lag due to the sudden influx of trading volume.
The half-life of this revelry vanished faster than champagne bubbles. On the morning of September 8, a massive sell order suddenly appeared in the WLFI trading zone, and the numbers on the screen plummeted like a waterfall. The blockchain browser showed that this sell-off came from wallets associated with Sun Yuchen, with a massive scale of cashing out sufficient to cause the market's buy orders to instantly collapse. The price dropped sharply within 15 minutes, and retail investors' phones kept popping up loss alerts, turning the cheers in the group into cries of despair.
A more dramatic twist unfolded in the afternoon. Just after three o'clock, some netizens discovered that Eric's Instagram had cleared all content related to Sun Yuchen, including three dinner group photos and two toasting videos. Refreshing Twitter, Sun Yuchen's name was also missing from the follow list. Half an hour later, a spokesperson for the Trump Group issued a statement claiming, "Eric has no business ties with cryptocurrency speculators," and announced an application for asset freezing via legal counsel against the decentralized exchange.
As of the close on September 8, a large amount of WLFI in Sun Yuchen's two wallets has been marked as frozen. These assets are locked in smart contracts, making them impossible to transfer or trade. Data from blockchain analysis company Nansen shows that these tokens account for 12% of WLFI's total circulation, and all are unlocked team reserve shares that should not appear in the circulating market.
The abnormal market signals have raised doubts within the industry. Despite the price plummeting, the 24-hour trading volume of WLFI surged against the trend by 250%. A risk control director from a leading exchange revealed: "The trading volume of tokens with only 10% circulation is likely the result of market makers using quantitative bots to create false prosperity, aimed at attracting more retail investors to take over." A tech blogger analyzed the trading records and found numerous suspicious orders of "left hand to right hand."
Sun Yuchen's cryptocurrency empire is facing a chain reaction. The TRX token he issued has been implicated in this event, showing a significant daily drop and a substantial evaporation of market value. More seriously, the U.S. SEC has included WLFI in the "politically associated tokens" monitoring list. Industry lawyers analyze that if market manipulation is confirmed, those responsible may face imprisonment.
Retail investors fell into despair. On Ms. Li's phone screen, the glaring numbers of her losses were shocking. The WLFI she bought at a high price shrank by nearly 30% in just one day. "I only realized I might have fallen into a trap when I saw the news about the Trump family freezing assets this morning." In the five WLFI investment groups she joined, messages were 99+, with some sharing police report receipts, and others crying in voice messages: "A lifetime of savings, just gone like that."
This capital farce, lasting less than 48 hours, raises the question of whether Sun Yuchen is repeating his habitual trick of cutting leeks under the guise of political endorsement, or if the Trump family is playing a "black eats black" scenario to evade regulation. Can the frozen massive assets be unfrozen through legal means? The already fragile trust chain in the cryptocurrency market has shown more cracks after this incident, and repair seems a distant prospect.
Looking back at the group photo from the Miami dinner, what remains uncaptured outside the lens may be the most authentic survival rule in the game of capital—when the crisp sound of champagne glasses clinking fades away, the smiles under the crystal chandelier freeze into memes, leaving only cold code and the scattered remnants of retail investors post-harvest.
