World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is facing criticism after a board vote approved a $1 boost proposal despite community backlash over the lack of voting access for blocked WLFI holders.
Onchain voting data shows that the most “FOR” votes were cast by the best wallets marked as addresses associated with the team or strategic partners, According to pseudonymous cryptocurrency trader and DeFi researcher^2.
The nine best wallets settled for approximately 59% of total voting power, giving a diminutive group of vast holders effective control over the outcome of the $1 boost proposal. The largest wallet secured 18.786% of the total votes based on the WLFI governance snapshot vote.
“This is in contrast to the situation of real voters lower in the screenshot, who since TGE have not had access to their WLFI tokens and cannot vote on unlocking until the team allows it,” DeFi^2 stated on X.
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The USD1 proposal contrasts with the incentives for WLFI token holders
According to DeFi^2, the project’s focus on the $1 increment proposal raises questions about why governance was used to expand the protocol rather than addressing limitations affecting a vast portion of investors.
“The real motivation becomes clear when we recall the fine print that WLFI holders are not entitled to ANY income from the protocol at all,” the researcher wrote, adding that the project’s Golden Book states that 75% of net income goes to Trump family affiliates and the remaining 25% to Witkoff family affiliates.
One token holder who voted opponent of the proposal stated that the measure would further weaken investors without offering any clear benefits in return. The user argued that World Liberty Financial previously used over nine figures of investor capital to build a vault of assets including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Chainlink (LINK), but WLFI holders received no direct benefit from these holdings.
“World Liberty Financial could easily liquidate its alternative assets to support the $1 incentives rather than further diluting investors,” the user wrote.
Cointelegraph reached out to WLFI for comment but did not receive a response via publication.
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World Liberty is applying for a US banking charter
Earlier this month, World Liberty Financial applied for a U.S. national custodial banking charter to cover the issuance, custody and conversion of the $1 stablecoin under a single regulated entity. The move would allow the company to mint and exchange the $1 without third-party providers, offer free dollar-to-$1 exchanges, and expand its services to institutional users.
Last week, the company also launched World Liberty Markets, a recent onchain lending and lending platform built on the $1 stablecoin and WLFI governance token.
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