BLUF*
World Liberty Financial (the Trump sons’ DeFi project) said they’re here to “fight debanking” while debanking Justin Sun - freezing Sun’s wallet with $110M. Brutal.
*Bottom Line Up Front
Good morning,
World Liberty Financial, the Trump family's DeFi protocol, just taught Justin Sun—crypto's biggest attention whore—a $110M lesson in "Fuck Around & Find Out."
Sun thought investing in Trump's DeFi project meant buying the family's good graces. Cash in, cash out, sayonara. Did it work that way? No.
Storytime, where we observe two types of assholes—but only one has admin keys.
Best,
Austin Campbell
Teaching Blockchain & DeFi at NYU
Talking to institutions at Zero Knowledge
ZERO IN
Let's cut through the bullshit and establish what actually happened when crypto's most notorious clout chaser met America's most famous family.
1 SUN: DIALING IN
Justin Sun founded Tron and HTX—think FTX but somehow still operating. He's also the guy who paid $4.6 million to have lunch with Warren Buffett just for the 'gram… Someone pass this man a Gatorade
Suns’ playbook never changes: find famous people, throw money at them, extract attention, dump on retail. Rinse, repeat, profit.
But his strategy requires one thing the Trumps didn't give him: the ability to exit.
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2 SONS: DABBLING IN DEFI
World Liberty Financial is the Trump family's DeFi project. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are the official "Web3 Ambassadors" while the president plays promoter-in-chief.
WLF promised to fight "debanking."
Given WLF has frozen 271 wallets...
TRANSLATION: they are the only ones debanking.
SUN VS. SONS
Traditional venture capital has avoided both parties. Sun's Tron raised funds primarily through token sales. World Liberty Financial bypassed traditional crypto VCs entirely.
Two entities operating outside conventional financial experience and funding channels creates the perfect conditions for chaos, which makes us empathize with some of the harshest TradFi vs DeFi critiques:
Crypto’s core players can’t understand why our financial system needs centralized governance or regulations against insider trading, freeze & seize frameworks, forced disclosures, etc.
SUN: BURNED
Sun's intention seemed to be using customer deposits from his exchange (HTX) as exit liquidity, planning to later replace them with his (now locked) tokens.
The moment that Sun's wallet started preparing a sell order, hell froze over it.
THE TRUMP CARD
WLF called blacklistAddress(), a killswitch that froze Sun’s wallet, blocking withdrawals of his $110 million $WLF.
Sun could see his tokens on Etherscan. He could watch their total value tick up or down. He could show you the exact transaction hash where he bought them.
But to move them? Sell them? Transfer them to another wallet? Fuggedaboutit.
CONTROL FREAK FAM
In this story, everyone sucks.
Trumps’ family business doesn't operate on partnerships—they thrive on control.
Trumps’ ventures have one commonality—the Trumps keep their hands on the wheel.
World Liberty Financial? Same playbook (with smart contracts)
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Should we sympathize?
Sun made a fatal miscalculation fucking with the Trumps in the house that they built. Sun is not a Trump, not family, nor friend. Just like on any Trump property, management reserves the right to refuse service.
Should we stop this shit?
Since WLF has Sun's $75M in real assets, what’s the incentive to allow Sun to cash out his tokens?
As long as $110M stays frozen, the price of $WLF stays hot .
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TO FREEZE & TO SEIZE
WHO HOLDS THE KEYS?
TRUSTWORTHYStandard governance → 3 of 5 signatures required → Time-locked changes (48-72 hours) → Governance framework → Public documentation → Audit trails, appeals, arbitration Example: USDC can freeze, but Circle faces legal liability |
TRUMP/WLFSingular authority → One signature, instant execution → No time delays or warnings → Freeze anyone, anytime → Zero liability—no appeals, arbitration Reality: 271 wallets frozen, $110M seized |
ZERO OUT
POWER MOVES
Seems Sun paid for proximity and power, as long as he can hit it and quit it.
Supposedly, WLF was founded to fight debanking, but they’re debanking?
While Sun is no angel, we wonder if in the long run, WLF is worse?
So maintain an agnostic front (and read the f*cking smart contracts).
ZERO TIME
Gensler's Magic Disappearing Act
Every one of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler's texts from October 2022 to September 2023 are gone. "Backup glitch." "Device deletion policy.” Conveniently covers Silvergate's collapse, Chokepoint 2.0, crypto debanking, and more.
On Wall Street, destroying evidence gets you jail time. At SEC? Is that standard operating procedure?
Hyperliquid's Real Revolution
Hyperliquid quietly captured 80% of perpetuals trading. Their new stablecoin launches soon. Circle's about to lose 8% of USDC deposits—that's $1.3B in annual yield, gone.
Historical patterns: Tether/Bitfinex, USDC/Coinbase, and now USDH/Hyperliquid.
Distribution is king, but there's a catch—Hyperliquid is an unregulated offshore futures exchange betting that nobody catches them. Deep value or ticking time bomb? Place your bets.
ZERO INSIDER
AUSTIN
Presenting at UChicago's IO+ Conference. Packed schedule. Conference request? Share your details (earlier vs later).
DAVID
Launching my book at Powerhouse Books in Dumbo (Brooklyn, NYC) I’ll be there (with some of the Zero Knowledge squad). Are you on the list? RSVP + Pre-order : Stealing the Future: Sam Bankman-Fried, Elite Fraud, and the Cult of Techno-Utopia.
1 More curiosity? Read our deep dive onto WLF, Justin Sun at Zero Insights.
2 Missed out? Read letters 006 on Digital Asset Treasuries, 005 on Tornado Cash, 004 on DeFi Doomers, 003 on the GENIUS Bill.