Research Report: Trump Family-Linked Token WLFI May Serve as an "Early Warning Signal" for the Crypto Market

PANews February 15 News, according to Cointelegraph, a research report released by data provider Amberdata shows that the DeFi governance token WLFI, associated with the Trump family, may have issued an early warning signal five hours before the large-scale liquidation event in the crypto market on October 10 last year. On that day, the market liquidated approximately $6.93 billion in leveraged positions in less than an hour, Bitcoin dropped about 15%, Ethereum fell about 20%, and some small-cap tokens declined by up to 70%. Amberdata found that WLFI began to plummet sharply more than five hours before the broader market decline, while Bitcoin was still trading near $121,000 and showed no obvious signs of stress. The report’s author, Mike Marshall, stated that a five-hour lead time is hard to dismiss as a coincidence, distinguishing a truly actionable warning from statistical noise.

The researchers analyzed three abnormal patterns: surges in trading activity, significant divergence from Bitcoin’s price trend, and extreme leverage levels. WLFI’s hourly trading volume surged to approximately $474 million within minutes after the release of tariff-related political news, reaching 21.7 times its normal level. Meanwhile, the funding rate for WLFI perpetual contracts reached about 2.87% every eight hours, equivalent to an annualized borrowing cost of nearly 131%. The report did not assert the existence of insider trading but noted that the structure of the crypto market may cause some assets to have importance that exceeds their market cap.