Trump Token WLFI Surges 29% as U.S. Shutdown Nears End

The U.S. Senate’s 60-40 vote to end the longest government shutdown in American history triggered immediate market reactions, with World Liberty Financial’s WLFI token leading the charge with a 29% surge to $0.158. The 40-day federal paralysis had furloughed nearly 900,000 federal workers and halted critical services from SNAP food aid to airport operations before Democrats agreed to support a package funding multiple agencies through the full fiscal year, with others funded until January 30, 2026. President Trump’s comments at a Sunday night football game, where he told reporters “it looks like we’re getting very close to the shutdown ending,” according to a POLITICO report, added momentum to the political breakthrough.

The broader crypto market joined the rally, with Bitcoin climbing 3.6% to hover around $106,000 after breaking below $100,000 last week, while Ethereum gained 4.8%. Prediction platform Myriad, owned by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan, reflected the growing confidence in a resolution, with users assigning an 88% chance that the government shutdown would end before November 15, up from lower levels following the Senate vote. Despite the recent surge, WLFI remains 53.5% below its all-time high of $0.46, ranking as the 43rd-largest cryptocurrency with a $4.2 billion market cap according to CoinGecko data.

The WLFI surge points to more than just shutdown optimism, according to crypto analyst Nic Puckrin, co-founder of The Coin Bureau. A key driver behind the rally was “Trump’s announcement of a $2,000 ‘tariffs dividend’ handout to every American, which has naturally attracted attention to Trump-backed projects again,” Puckrin told Decrypt. President Trump had floated giving Americans a $2,000 “dividend” funded by tariff revenues on Truth Social, specifying that such payments would go to everyone except high-income earners.

However, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tempered expectations during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” with host George Stephanopoulos, stating that the “dividend” could be “just the tax decreases that we are seeing on the president’s agenda.” The Trump family’s crypto ventures have generated significant attention and profits, with President Trump’s crypto empire generating over $1 billion in profits according to his son Eric Trump, who confirmed last month that the figure is “probably more.” Democrats have raised ethics alarms over Trump’s crypto entanglements, pointing to his family’s DeFi project, a $2 billion UAE-linked deal, and the pardon of Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao as clear conflicts of interest.

While the WLFI surge demonstrates “continued appetite for speculative, politically-linked tokens” amid upbeat sentiment, Puckrin characterized the movement as “a momentum play” that could “fizzle out quickly.” Ray Youssef, Co-Founder and CEO of crypto app NoOnes, told Decrypt that expectations of a 3-4x rebound post-shutdown “seem justified,” though he noted the token remains “still down 30% year-over-year” and its links to the Trump administration “have raised eyebrows” in crypto circles.

Dean Chen, an analyst at Bitunix, echoed these concerns, telling Decrypt that WLFI’s surge reflects “brand, liquidity, and narrative more than fundamentals.” Chen emphasized that unless the World Liberty Financial DeFi project proves its stablecoin reserves and lands credible tokenization deals by 2026, the rally may fade as a short-term, politically driven spike. The analyst consensus suggests that while political developments can create powerful short-term catalysts for tokens like WLFI, sustainable growth requires demonstrated project fundamentals beyond political associations.