World Liberty Financial has scrambled to pay down $25 million of its highly scrutinized loan on the DeFi lending protocol Dolomite.
The immediate repayments comprise $15 million on April 7 and an additional $10 million on April 10. These payments arrive amid mounting industry backlash over the project’s use of its own token as collateral.
WLFI’s Repayment Follows Intense Community Pressure
Data from BeInCrypto showed that the ongoing controversy dragged the WLFI token down to an all-time low of $0.07967. This is its weakest performance since the project’s highly publicized rollout in 2025.
The market rout follows revelations that World Liberty essentially used its own governance tokens as collateral to extract massive quantities of stablecoins.
According to Arkham Intelligence, the Trump-affiliated venture pledged roughly $406 million worth of WLFI across two digital wallets to borrow $150 million in USDC.
This maneuver rapidly depleted Dolomite’s USD1 lending pool, pushing utilization rates above 93%. Consequently, retail depositors faced a severe liquidity crunch, making it difficult to withdraw their funds.
Meanwhile, the optics of the transaction were further complicated by intertwined leadership. Dolomite co-founder Corey Caplan currently serves as an official advisor to World Liberty Financial.
As the digital asset’s price cratered, DeFi analysts raised alarms regarding the systemic risk of bad debt. WLFI’s collateral now accounts for approximately 55% of Dolomite’s $835.7 million in total value locked, heavily concentrating risk in a single, depreciating asset.
World Liberty Financial Dismisses ‘FUD’
However, World Liberty executives have aggressively pushed back against the market anxiety, dismissing insolvency fears as “FUD.”
In a series of social media statements, the developers argued that their massive borrowing benefits the broader ecosystem. They claimed that acting as an “anchor borrower” generates outsized yield for other participants.
However, critics warned that a sharper decline could raise the risk of bad debt for lenders if collateral values fall faster than the position can be adjusted. World Liberty rejected that scenario, saying it could post more collateral if needed.
“We are one of the largest suppliers and borrowers on WLFI Markets. Yes, we supplied WLFI as collateral and borrowed stablecoins. No, we are nowhere near liquidation — and frankly, even if markets moved dramatically against us, we’d simply supply more collateral. That’s not a risk. That’s how this works,” the team added.
In a simultaneous bid to appease early backers facing steep paper losses, World Liberty announced an upcoming governance proposal to unlock restricted tokens.
According to the team, the proposed framework will feature a structured, long-term vesting schedule specifically targeted at early retail buyers.
