The presidential family dances with Chinese capital in the crypto world.

Cover image source: “Water Margin (1998)”

In 298 BC, the King of Pingyuan of Zhao had three thousand guests at his court, and Mao Sui alone was able to debate with the scholars in the court of Chu, winning opportunities for the Zhao state.

More than two thousand years later, on September 1, 2025, a token named WLFI will be listed on global trading platforms. The Chinese capital network spanning the Pacific is supporting the digital empire of the American presidential family.

Behind this $40 billion project stands a group of modern “Gate guests.” There are Chinese billionaires who have invested $75 million, the founder of a trading platform seeking presidential pardons, stablecoin experts deeply rooted in the Asian market, and a Eastern power described as “able to make the Trump family fortune soar, yet can bring them back to poverty overnight when they cross the line.”

As the wealth of American political families intertwines deeply with Eastern capital, and as China influences the global crypto landscape through the Hong Kong market, a new geopolitical game is unfolding.

Binance, the central node of the Chinese network

To understand the influence of Chinese people in the WLFI project, one must start with Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange platform. This exchange platform, founded by Chinese individuals, has now become the nerve center of the entire Chinese cryptocurrency network.

Binance accounts for about 30% of the global cryptocurrency trading volume, with a daily transaction volume exceeding $20 billion. Its penetration rate in the Asian market exceeds 60%, meaning that most capital flows must go through its system. This level of control has brought Binance's status in the Chinese online community close to a monopoly.

Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ) was sentenced to four months in prison for violating anti-money laundering regulations. According to informed sources, CZ is seeking a pardon from Trump through various channels. This rumor is not without basis. Trump had previously shown leniency towards several financial criminals during his first term, including his former campaign manager Paul Manafort.

For CZ, a four-month prison sentence may not be long, but for a business empire controlling hundreds of billions of dollars in assets, the freedom of the founder is crucial to the stability of the entire system.

On March 13, 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump family was negotiating to acquire a substantial stake in Binance.US, but this was strongly denied by CZ. Subsequently, Bloomberg also published an article stating that they were very confident that some of the information came from very reliable sources, citing four anonymous individuals familiar with the matter, including that both parties were set to launch a stablecoin, which is what we now see as USD1.

Despite strong denials from both parties, the interaction between USD1 and Binance still reflects the close relationship between the two.

At the end of April, WLFI and CZ's official social media accounts released photos of the three co-founders of WLFI meeting with CZ in Abu Dhabi, stating that the discussions included topics such as how to expand global adoption, setting new standards, and pushing cryptocurrencies to new levels.

In early May, Eric Trump, the second son of Trump, revealed during the Token2049 event that the Abu Dhabi investment company MGX invested 2 billion USD in Binance, with the payment made in USD1 stablecoin. Normally, this amount should be quickly converted into US dollars, but Binance kept 1.9 billion USD in its own address, making it the largest holder of USD1, accounting for 92.8% of the total circulation.

This operation directly pushed the market value of USD1 from 130 million dollars to 2.1 billion dollars. If this portion of funds is deducted, the actual circulation of USD1 is only around 100 million dollars. The inflated data on the surface has become a key support for the 40 billion dollar valuation of WLFI. Such practices of inflating numbers might constitute market manipulation in traditional financial markets, but have become common tactics in the relatively loosely regulated cryptocurrency space.

In the same month, WLFI officially released a tweet about X, announcing that the mascot Meme coin $B (BUILDon) supporting the Binance BNB Chain ecosystem was acquired, with an investment of approximately $25,000 in $B. The news caused a stir in the market, with the token price skyrocketing and its market capitalization briefly exceeding $300 million.

WLFI's public endorsement of $B is not just a small investment. For Binance, meme coins are both amplifiers of community sentiment and natural entry points for traffic. The attention brought by the hype around $B quickly feeds back into the narrative of USD1. It is no longer just a newly launched stablecoin, but is wrapped into the larger story of “ecological expansion” and “community co-construction.”

In this system, Binance is using familiar methods to tie the promotion of stablecoins to the frenzy of the Meme market, first attracting attention with Meme coins and then embedding USD1 in the role of “base currency.” The hype has turned into a strategy, and the heat has become a tool for market education. As a result, the ecological promotion of USD1 has gained far more volume than its actual scale in a short period of time.

Gathering of Huaren guests

Outside the core of Binance, there is also a group of technology projects that, through their collaboration with WLFI, have made the connections within the entire ecosystem tighter. These seemingly independent companies are actually weaving together a sophisticated network of Chinese capital.

Ryan Fang: The only Chinese in the current team, the most trusted project operator at Binance

In the Chinese technology network of WLFI, Ryan Fang holds an important position, and he is also the only Chinese member in the current team. At the same time, Ankr is also recognized in the industry as a “Binance affiliate.” In addition to BSC nodes and liquidity staking services, well-known BSC (now BNBChain) ecosystem projects such as BounceBit, Auction, and Neura have all come from the Ankr team.

Ryan is the co-founder and COO of Ankr, and has also been involved in the creation of PrimeBlock and Tomo. In his early years, he worked at Morgan Stanley and later entered the private equity industry, accumulating experience in traditional finance. This background allows him to quickly understand the combination of funds and technology in the blockchain world.

Ankr, as a global leading blockchain infrastructure service provider, offers RPC nodes and cross-chain tools for multiple projects, including the Binance BSC chain. The circulation of USD1 relies on these nodes to complete transaction confirmations and network stability, while through Ankr's cross-chain services, USD1 can be freely transferred across multiple chains such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Polygon.

In WLFI, Ankr has another layer of role. Its Liquid Staking product allows USD1 to be staked and generate returns, transforming this token from a mere payment tool into an asset with financial properties. While users earn returns, they also contribute liquidity to the entire ecosystem.

Ankr has provided services for over eight thousand blockchain projects, and these ready-made customer relationships form a natural channel for USD1 to expand. Stablecoins can leverage Ankr's network to facilitate distribution into new application scenarios.

As a modern “Gatekeeper”, Ryan Fang integrates a newly issued stablecoin into the daily operations of the global cryptocurrency market through infrastructure.

Rich Teo: The Foxconn Factory that Controls Stablecoins

The WLFI project also features the presence of Paxos co-founder Richmond Teo.

Paxos was once Binance's most important stablecoin partner. The BUSD it issued was long the main stablecoin of Binance, with a market capitalization that once exceeded 20 billion dollars.

In 2022, Paxos once became the world's leading stablecoin issuer and technology provider. Its co-founder Rich Teo had a good personal relationship with Binance CEO CZ, and at that time, there were quite a few rumors circulating in the crypto circle, which prompted CZ to rarely post on social media to refute them.

By 2023, U.S. regulators required Paxos to stop issuing BUSD, causing the company to suddenly fall from grace and enter a long period of silence. There was a widespread belief in the industry that Paxos had lost its competitive edge.

Of course, with the advancement of stablecoin legislation in the United States, Paxos has once again become one of the teams benefiting from regulatory dividends, with stablecoins such as PayPal's PYUSD and DBS Bank's USDG being issued by Paxos.

Teo is responsible for the Asian market business at Paxos and is very familiar with the compliance paths of stablecoins under different regulatory systems. The suspension of BUSD was a heavy blow for him, but it also forced him to gain experience in dealing with regulation and market contraction. This experience is particularly important for WLFI. The issuance and circulation of USD1 also face regulatory uncertainties.

Teo's emergence is not just a personal return, but also signifies Paxos's attempt to find an opportunity to re-enter the stablecoin track through WLFI. This relationship makes USD1 more easily accepted in the market and adds a layer of assurance for Binance's trust in WLFI. For the entire Chinese network, Teo's addition means that a key piece has been reinstated in terms of compliance and regulation.

DWF Labs: Key Liquidity Provider

In the Chinese network of WLFI, DWF Labs is a key liquidity provider.

This company is headquartered in the UAE and has grown to become one of the largest high-frequency cryptocurrency trading entities in the world over the past three years, managing assets of over 2 billion USD and providing market making for hundreds of projects, many of which have developed into leading projects with a market capitalization of over 1 billion USD.

In the BNB Chain ecosystem, DWF Labs holds a prominent position. It maintains a close relationship with Binance, playing a core role not only in providing liquidity support for on-chain projects but also in directly participating in ecosystem development. As a top-tier market maker, DWF Labs collaborates with major trading platforms worldwide, which can help new projects secure listing channels and provide support in dealing with regulations.

For WLFI, the involvement of DWF Labs is not just a matter of touching the surface. It has invested $25 million, taking a significant share of the Chinese capital contributions, and is expected to become the official market maker for WLFI, responsible for maintaining price stability and market liquidity. Once it takes on this role, DWF Labs will be deeply tied to WLFI, which also means it will have a direct connection with the digital asset plans of the Trump family.

In addition, its initiated DeFi project Falcon Finance also received token investment from WFLI and accepted USD1 as collateral for the protocol at the first opportunity.

Sun Yuchen's “Key Rescue”

In this Chinese network, Sun Yuchen played a key role as the “firefighter”. In October 2024, when the WLFI project was struggling to sell, having raised only $2.7 million and on the verge of failure, Sun Yuchen's investment came like a breath of fresh air, saving this nearly doomed project.

The timing of this investment is astonishingly precise. It occurred in the third week after Trump's victory, at a critical moment when the global crypto market was in a frenzy due to policy expectations. At that time, the price of Bitcoin skyrocketed from $70,000 to $100,000, and the total market capitalization of the entire crypto market increased by over $1 trillion.

As the founder of TRON, Sun Yuchen is well aware of the political value of this investment. TRON is the third-largest blockchain network in the world, behind Ethereum and the BNB Chain, with over 200 million users and 100 billion dollars in on-chain assets.

Sun Yuchen has a close relationship with Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ). Sun Yuchen publicly refers to CZ as a “mentor and friend,” and their friendship goes beyond mere business cooperation. When CZ faced legal issues due to violations of anti-money laundering regulations, Sun Yuchen was one of the few industry leader entrepreneurs to publicly express support, which garnered widespread attention in the industry. This mutually supportive relationship has made Sun Yuchen's investment decisions quite influential in the Chinese network.

The Trump family's stake in the WLFI project is approximately $400 million, accounting for about 40% of their total wealth. This highly concentrated investment strategy has driven the Trump family’s desire for the project's success to unprecedented heights.

After that, Sun Yuchen obtained the position of WLFI advisor and emphasized the role of financial freedom and USD1 with Eric Trump in public. More importantly, he added another $45 million investment, bringing the total investment to $75 million, further binding his interests with WLFI.

Eric Trump “Pilgrimage” Hong Kong, WLFI's strategic chess game

August 29, 2025, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

At the main venue of the BitcoinAsia conference, cryptocurrency investors from all over Asia gathered together. When Eric Trump took to the stage, the audience erupted in enthusiastic applause. The son of the U.S. president thanked Hong Kong for its warm welcome, describing the atmosphere as “like a rock concert.”

He explained to the audience that one of the reasons the Trump family entered the Bitcoin space was due to being “de-banked” by traditional financial institutions, which led them to find allies in the cryptocurrency community.

Eric Trump has shown a strong bullish attitude towards Bitcoin, confidently predicting that the price of Bitcoin will reach 1 million dollars, and possibly even higher. He suggested that viewers buy in now and hold for the long term, viewing volatility as a friend.

Behind WLFI lies a larger strategic game.

As an international financial center, Hong Kong has developed a relatively complete regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and a licensed trading system. A large amount of Asian capital flows into the global market through Hong Kong, and this flow of funds is sufficient to influence prices.

The Trump family has bet nearly half of their wealth on cryptocurrency, essentially handing their fate over to a market that cannot be fully controlled. From the distribution of on-chain addresses, Asian investors hold a high proportion of positions, with Hong Kong and Singapore being particularly prominent.

This shift in power is also reflected at the policy level. The Trump administration has shown rare caution in its attitude towards China: the promised 60% tariffs during the campaign have not been implemented; regarding crypto regulation, the new SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has stated that there will be a more open stance towards projects from Asia; the U.S. Treasury has also lifted sanctions on several Chinese crypto companies, leaving room for cooperation.

From Sun Yuchen's $75 million investment to Binance's platform support; from Paxos's compliance and technology to DWF Labs's market services; from Ryan Fang's infrastructure layout to the gathering of Hong Kong capital, we can see a Chinese network spanning the Pacific that is supporting the U.S. presidential family in the form of “digital gatekeepers.”

The characteristics of this Gate network are no different from two thousand years ago. Some provide money, some provide labor, and some provide technology and channels. The difference is that today's stage is not in the court of the State of Chu, but in the on-chain market. The emergence of digital gatekeepers signifies that Chinese capital and technology occupy a significant position in the new power structure.

At the event venue in Hong Kong, Eric Trump’s comments on China were particularly noteworthy. Eric Trump stated that the US and China may understand digital currency better than any other countries in the world. He referred to China as “a powerful force” in the development of cryptocurrency.

At this historic moment, we are witnessing new rules in the power game. When the son of the American president stands at the podium in Hong Kong, paying tribute to Asian investors and praising China's strength in the digital currency field, the boundaries of traditional geopolitics are being redefined.

Chinese capital and technology are no longer just peripheral sources of funding, but have entered the core of “digital guests” and play a substantial role in this multinational game.

The applause from the audience continues endlessly, the wheels of history are rolling forward, and we are witnessing the opening of a new era.