“In the crypto world, every price fluctuation is the result of countless factors working together, and any single attribution may stray from the truth.” This used to be an industry consensus, but it was shattered during the recent volatility of the WLFI token.

After the listing of World Liberty Financial's WLFI token, the price experienced significant fluctuations, and market sentiment quickly pointed fingers at TRON Foundation's founder, Justin Sun. However, the latest on-chain data analysis and authoritative opinions indicate that this attribution is overly simplistic.

Timestamp: Transfers Occurred Post Plummet

On September 6, on-chain analysis platform Nansen's CEO, Alex Svanevik, meticulously examined the WLFI transaction timestamps using an AI Research Agent and found that Justin Sun did not engage in a sell-off. This finding overturned the initial assumption. The AI Research Agent initially hinted that Justin Sun might be selling off WLFI, but after in-depth analysis of the timestamp evidence, a different conclusion was reached.

Svanevik further pointed out that the related transfers actually took place after a significant drop in the WLFI coin price, so they could not have been a primary cause of the price decline. Judging by the share of total network volume on that day, the scale of these transfers may also not have substantially impacted the market price trend.

The economic model design of the WLFI token determined that its market performance would inevitably face early unlocking pressure. The token distribution is highly concentrated, with about 83% of the tokens controlled by entities associated with the Trump family and early whales. This concentration implies that the early project liquidity is relatively limited, and a large number of token unlocks may exert significant pressure on the price.

Even during the price decline, data from the blockchain analytics platform Bubblemaps shows that out of over 85,000 presale participants, 60% are still holding the tokens, with only 29% having sold off completely. This indicates that the majority of investors still maintain confidence. For some early investors, taking profits is a normal practice in the crypto market, especially when the project has garnered high attention and seen significant early gains.

World Liberty Financial team’s blacklisting action against Justin Sun's wallet sparked a profound discussion about the essence of decentralized finance. The unilateral freezing of user assets by the project deviates from the fundamental value proposition of blockchain. The ownership of token assets is the most fundamental value of blockchain and should be considered as both "sacred and inviolable."

This centralized response reflects a fundamental contradiction present in many cryptocurrency projects today: despite ostensibly advocating for decentralization, they still retain the capacity for centralized control. In his response, Justin Sun emphasized this fundamental issue, stating, "A great financial brand should be built on fairness, transparency, and trust, not on freezing investor assets."

Market Misconceptions and Media Bias

Following the WLFI price fluctuation, some media reports exhibited clear selectivity and bias. Many reports overlooked basic fact-checking responsibilities and directly cited unverified external reports. Blockchain data indicates that during the so-called "sell-off" period, Justin Sun was actually conducting small deposit tests, rather than large-scale selling. These test transactions were misinterpreted as sell-off actions, triggering market panic.

All addresses involved in the circulating rumors (previously flagged by Arkham as low-trust, now corrected) actually belong to the HTX exchange platform hot wallet and are unrelated to Justin Sun personally. The related transfers are standard operating procedures for market makers—borrowing tokens from HTX and then rebalancing to Binance to maintain liquidity across platforms.

WLFI's listing occurred amidst a significant adjustment across the entire cryptocurrency market. Major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others experienced varying degrees of decline, with overall market sentiment being cautious. In this environment, newly listed tokens face greater pressure, which is entirely normal.

As the WLFI ecosystem gradually develops, the market will return to rationality, recognizing that WLFI's true value lies not in short-term price fluctuations but in the long-term financial ecosystem it is building. With more applications being implemented and the ecosystem maturing, this event will serve as a footnote in the WLFI project's growth process, reminding people of the cryptocurrency market's complexity and the interplay of various factors.

This article is a contributed submission and does not represent the views of BlockBeats.

Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:

Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia