The involvement of Justin Sun in World Liberty Financial as an advisor could have a major role in the swapping of Coinbase-backed wrapped Bitcoin to its rival.
The World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a fast-growing decentralized financial (DeFi) platform backed by Donald Trump’s family, has made notable on-chain moves in the past few days. Earlier today, World Liberty Financial exchanged all 102.9 cbBTC cbBTC $84 663 24h volatility: 0.1% Market cap: $3.29 B Vol. 24h: $183.91 M , worth over $10 million, for 103.15 WBTC.
The exchange has sparked significant interest from the crypto community based on recent developments and upcoming events. On the top list, the cbBTC is a Bitcoin product backed by Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN), which was recently launched on Ethereum ETH $1 577 24h volatility: 1.7% Market cap: $190.44 B Vol. 24h: $9.80 B and its layer two scaling solution Base.
On the other hand, the Wrapped Bitcoin WBTC $84 466 24h volatility: 0.2% Market cap: $10.89 B Vol. 24h: $178.18 M , is a major Bitcoin product with over $13.6 billion in market cap and over $565 million in 24-hour trading volume. Interestingly, BitGo, the original custodian of the WBTC, recently announced that it would distribute the custody services to three other projects including BiT Global, which is registered in Hong Kong and has a strategic partnership with Justin Sun and the Tron (TRX) ecosystem.
Word Liberty Financials under Justin Sun
As the World Liberty Financial protocol continues with its WLFI token sales to raise more funds, Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron network, made a strategic investment of $30 million. In return, World Liberty Financial made Sun an advisor to the company.
Notably, Sun and the Coinbase team have not been on the same page for a long while. For instance, Coinbase delisted WBTC for an accusation of being a Sun and Chinese proxy amid the ongoing investigation by the US SEC on potential money laundering and market manipulations.
On Wednesday, a US court ruled that Coinbase can continue with the delisting of the WBTC after BiT Global lost the case.
BiT Global lost. Today they asked the Court to order us to stop from delisting wBTC to protect our customers. Today the Court said no. We appreciate the Court’s consideration and the outstanding advocacy of Sonal Mehta and her team at @WilmerHale.
— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) December 18, 2024
On the other hand, Sun has accused Coinbase of centralizing Bitcoin with its cbBTC features including lack of proof of reserve, no audit, and the freeze asset function.
With Sun having a significant influence on World Liberty Financial, the exchange of cbBTC to WBTC was imminent.
Bigger Picture
The upcoming Trump administration is expected to democratize the adoption of digital assets and Web3 protocols by leveling the playing field for all participants. Most importantly, the US SEC is expected to receive clear crypto regulations from Congress to eliminate the ongoing speculations.
Consequently, the cryptocurrency industry is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years, potentially surpassing gold’s market soon. Furthermore, more countries have been discussing the introduction of a strategic Bitcoin reserve and are likely to follow in the footsteps of the United States if the Trump administration implements it next year.
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