The DeFi and stablecoin project associated with the Trump family, World Liberty Financial, has officially opened the voting period for its controversial (WLFI) token unlock proposal. Some 62 billion WLFI tokens are subject to the vote and would enter circulation beginning after a two-year cliff, if approved.

This includes about 45 billion WLFI that would benefit the founding team, advisors, and early partners, subject to a two-year cliff and a three-year linear vesting schedule, and up to 17 billion tokens for early protocol supporters, which will follow a two-year cliff and two-year vesting schedule.

According to the governance proposal, the move is meant to replace the current indefinite token locks with structured vesting schedules, providing clarity on future token supply, while simultaneously addressing low governance participation.

However, many pre-sale token buyers see this two-year vesting schedule as a sort of bait-and-switch after the token has already crashed hard, having hoped to sell their investment earlier.

Approximately 25 billion WLFI tokens, out of the total 100 billion supply, were sold in several public presale rounds. While the project has unlocked some of those tokens, after initially preventing even token transmissibility, pre-sale investors are still holding onto about 17 billion tokens.

WLFI is down nearly 13% at publication time to $0.064, from a price of $0.073 ahead of the governance vote kicking off. The token once traded at an all-time high of $0.33, according to The Block’s price page.

"The WLFI governance token has been fully functional as a digital tool to participate in governance since launch and required no further development, but we’re now at an inflection point for the greater WLFI ecosystem," the proposal reads. "The foundation is built. What comes next requires a governance structure that reflects genuine long-term conviction — not just from the team, but from every holder with a locked position. This proposal is how to get there."

"This proposal establishes a clear, structured vesting framework across all holder cohorts," the team added. If approved, about 10% of the tokens set aside for the founding team and investors could also be permanently burned, representing about 4.5 billion tokens.

Proposal pushback

On X, however, some purported investors are complaining that adding an additional vesting period is unfair, after already waiting over a year since launch. "What’s this 2 year cliff 2 year vesting bullshit? I don’t understand how early investors gotta wait up to 4 years to get their full allocation. Dirty work!" one commentator said.

Others are also concerned whether World Liberty will even be a going concern in two years, while some criticized the vote as another way to enrich President Donald Trump’s family and friends.

At launch, Donald Trump was listed as chief crypto advocate for the project, alongside “DeFi Visionary” Barron Trump, “Web3 Ambassadors” Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and co-founder Zach Witkoff, son of Trump ally Steve Witkoff.

Members of Congress have raised concerns about President Trump’s crypto ventures, including World Liberty. Notably, the WSJ previously reported UAE-backed firm, Aryam Investment, secretly bought a 49% stake in WLFI for $500 million, with about $187 million going directly to Trump family entities, raising ethical concerns.

Additionally, Abu Dhabi-based state investment firm MGX used the USD1 stablecoin, issued by World Liberty, to close a $2 billion investment in crypto exchange Binance. This deal occurred before President Trump pardoned former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who had pleaded guilty to federal financial violations.

Separately, Tron founder Justin Sun recently sued World Liberty after the team froze his WLFI tokens and made him ineligible to vote on governance proposals. Sun, who said he remains a supporter of the president, was one of the largest WLFI investors. For their part, World Liberty accused Sun of misconduct and token manipulation.

Sun has spoken out against the token unlock proposals. "For early purchaser tokens, the proposal imposes a two-year cliff followed by a two-year vesting schedule — and again, for those who do not affirmatively accept, their tokens are locked indefinitely," he said last week.

The voting period will run for seven days and require a 1 billion WLFI token quorum requirement to pass.