World Liberty Financial token jumps over 20% ahead of Mar-a-Lago forum

World Liberty Financial announced the event for on 18 February 2026 at Donald Trump’s Florida residence, outlining an agenda that includes digital assets, stablecoins, artificial intelligence and the U.S. dollar. Zack Witkoff, the project’s co-founder and chief executive, wrote that the team plans to make announcements at the forum.

Market participants attributed the move to positioning and on-chain flows rather than broad new demand. Connor Howe, chief executive and co-founder of Enso, told Decrypt that a single wallet bought about $2.75 million worth of WLFI using USDC, while a wallet he described as team-linked received 10 million tokens from Coinbase. Howe also pointed to a short squeeze dynamic, citing overnight volume growth, a roughly 40% rise in open interest and negative funding rates heading into the rally.

Illia Otychenko, lead analyst at CEX.IO, pointed to reports of a WLFI token buyback over the past 24 hours as an additional catalyst that may have tightened supply. He also cited signs of increased whale accumulation on-chain and argued the event’s visibility likely amplified existing positioning.

The price move comes as lawmakers in Washington scrutinize a $500 million investment in World Liberty Financial by a UAE-linked firm, announced days before Trump’s inauguration, followed by U.S. approval of advanced AI-chip exports to the UAE. Representative Ro Khanna has opened an inquiry into the deal, while Senator Chris Murphy characterized it on the Senate floor as containing “the elements of a bribe.” Senators Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim have urged the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to review the transaction.

As GNcrypto wrote on 12 February 2026, World Liberty Financial has been pitching an expansion beyond its WLFI token into payments-style rails, outlining plans for a foreign-exchange and remittance product called World Swap that would connect to users debit cards and bank accounts. The earlier report also cited internal activity figures for the projects stablecoin-linked lending arm and noted that a trust-company affiliate filed for a U.S. national trust bank charter intended to support issuing and redeeming its USD1 stablecoin under federal supervision.