World Liberty Financial, a crypto project backed by the Trump family, voted in favor of a proposal allowing WLFI token holders with holdings of $5 million or more to gain “direct access” to the team.
Just ten major participants out of 1,800 secured an overwhelming majority in the vote, according to CoinDesk.
WLFI holders participated in the voting process, and the “voting weight” was proportional to the number of tokens in a user’s balance. The proposal for “access to the team” was approved by 99.12% of the 1,800 participants. Notably, 76% of the tokens were held by just ten wallets.
A three-tier staking system was approved, which effectively creates paid access for projects wishing to discuss partnerships with World Liberty Financial’s top management, the publication notes.
When staking any amount of tokens up to 10 million WLFI, their owners can participate in voting, earn staking rewards, and receive “deposit incentives” in the USD1 stablecoin, also issued by World Liberty Financial.
When staking 10 million WLFI (approximately $1 million) or more, the Node tier begins, which adds the ability to convert stablecoins into USD1 at a 1:1 rate on the over-the-counter market, and the first thousand participants will receive bonuses. By staking 50 million WLFI (approximately $5 million) and advancing to the Super Node level, participants will gain “guaranteed direct access to the WLFI team to discuss partnership opportunities” in addition to all the benefits listed above.
Currently, WLFI is receiving “more partnership requests than it can productively handle,” the proposal states. The $5 million staking requirement “serves as a filter to prioritize projects and platforms that actively support and participate in the WLFI ecosystem, rather than those seeking partnerships solely for self-serving reasons.”
WLFI spokesperson David Vachsman told Reuters that “direct access” means access to the business development team and executives, not to specific founders, and does not guarantee a partnership. The publication noted that the “Meet Our Team” section on the World Liberty website previously listed, among others, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Barron Trump. After Reuters asked the project which team members would be accessible, the page was modified, and the “Meet Our Team” section was removed.
It is also noted that when World Liberty launched, one month before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the company stated that it would make cryptocurrency accessible to everyone by opening governance to any token holder. The new system implies that only those who have WLFI locked in staking will have voting rights.