World Liberty Financial, with Trump backing, swaps its cbBTC for WBTC after Sun’s new advisory role.

On Wednesday, World Liberty Financial, a firm associated with the family of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, exchanged approximately $10 million worth of Coinbase’s wrapped bitcoin (cbBTC) for WBTC, a competing token.

Wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) is a tokenized version of Bitcoin that facilitates its use on non-Bitcoin blockchains, particularly in decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. Coinbase launched cbBTC in September but announced in November that it would delist WBTC due to its listing criteria. This decision led BiT Global, a key custodian of WBTC, to file a lawsuit aiming to prevent the delisting, but the court ruled in favor of Coinbase on Wednesday.

Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron blockchain and a prominent figure named by CoinDesk as one of the most influential of 2024, plays a role in this scenario. Coinbase defended its move by pointing out BiT Global’s connections to Sun, who faces fraud and market manipulation allegations in the U.S., accusations he has denied. Sun, after acquiring a $30 million stake in World Liberty Financial in exchange for WLFI tokens, also took on an advisory role with the platform.

While World Liberty Financial has not commented on its token swap, on-chain data reveals that the company has been actively trading in the market, acquiring millions in tokens like Aave (AAVE), Chainlink’s LINK, and Ethena’s ENA, which are linked to the firm through various partnerships and integrations.

Sun’s relationship with WBTC is somewhat indirect. In August, BitGo, the original custodian of WBTC’s underlying Bitcoin, announced that it would decentralize the custody of WBTC by involving three separate entities, including BiT Global. BiT Global, registered as a Trust and Company Service Provider (TCSP) in Hong Kong, operates as a strategic partner to BitGo and the Tron ecosystem.

Despite Sun’s involvement, he does not hold a direct stake in BiT Global. According to Robert Liu, a board member of BiT Global, some believe Sun’s role could be advantageous for WBTC, particularly because of the success of the Tron blockchain, which controls over 50% of the global market share. Liu emphasizes that the Tron network’s high turnover rate makes it a reliable platform for circulating over $60 billion worth of stablecoins.