World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s outrageously corrupt cryptocurrency venture, has scrambled to launch a WLFI governance token buyback program after the Republican defeat in the 2026 midterm elections this week sent its value spiraling by about 10%… so far.
Reuters reported the buyback is “funded by an initial allocation that could include revenue generated from reserves backing its USD1 stablecoin and other sources,” and the company has portrayed it as a way to both encourage participation in governance and increase the voting power that long-term token holders have. World Liberty didn’t say how much it plans to spend. There’s also another way of looking at it: Reuters noted the token is down more than 60% this year, a trend that started long before a Democratic victory in the midterms was considered inevitable.
The crypto industry has largely thrown in its lot with Republicans and the White House, and spent heavily this cycle in failed attempts to defeat Democratic candidates like prominent crypto critic Sherrod Brown (now senator-elect from Ohio). So it can likely expect both a much tougher legislative climate and more scrutiny of the friendly relationships it has with Trump-appointed regulators. The inbound Democratic House is reportedly already planning a market structure bill that would give the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) more power, while the long-stalled Clarity Act, which Democrats have portrayed as weak, is unlikely to attract much support without significantly stricter rules.
“I wouldn’t say it’s game over for Clarity, but passing it has become tougher. Some Democrats support clearer crypto rules, but I wouldn’t expect it to be high on their agenda,” Carlos Guzman, VP of research at crypto trading firm GSR, told Decrypt. “Any agreement will likely require stronger provisions on things like consumer protection and conflicts of interest.”
World Liberty Financial isn’t the only crypto firm to use buybacks lately—Bitcoin treasury company Strategy also did via an alternative route in recent days (preferred stock buybacks). The aim of buybacks in general is for a company to drive up or stabilize its own market value. Strategy did so to support the price of its STRC preferred shares near $100 and reduce its preferred capital outstanding. In World Liberty Financial’s case, a buyback more or less means trying to patch a gigantic leak in WLFI’s side by pouring cash into it.
But the electoral results pose specific problems for World Liberty Financial that stretch beyond the economic. Democrats are about to reclaim control of Congress’s extensive investigative powers, and World Liberty Financial is the jewel of the crypto investment network that had generated at least $2.3 billion for Trump and his family as of a June 2026 Reuters tally. Investors in those crypto projects had mysteriously lost about $2.3 billion as well… hmm.
Given that this administration’s degree of corruption and incompetence is only matched by its arrogance, it’s a solid bet that Democrats will find loose threads to yank on pretty much everywhere. (The likely incoming House Oversight chairman, Representative Robert Garcia, calls them the “Trump crime family.”) Trump’s headfirst dive into crypto while in office was such a brazen move that the Clarity Act was held up in part because of partisan fighting over the inclusion of ethics rules that could ensnare Trump.
In August, the Project On Government Oversight’s news division reported that the SEC said it had no records of an investigation from the last year into AI Financial Corporation (formerly Alt5 Sigma), which collapsed in value after it signed a deal to buy $717 million in tokens from World Liberty Financial. Legal experts expressed their concerns that the lack of an SEC investigation into the deal was a giant red flag regarding the president’s involvement. A separate Trump crypto venture, the TRUMP memecoin, has aggressively promoted itself by offering large investors the chance to attend dinners with Trump. Democrats have accused the whole thing of being a vehicle for Trump to sell access and influence.
A PR agency for World Liberty Financial didn’t immediately return Gizmodo’s request for comment, but we’ll update if we hear back.
