This one has everything: a billionaire feud, a former president, frozen tokens, and a public threat of litigation. Let's get into it.

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the crypto project co-founded by the Trump family, has been hemorrhaging value and trust for months. The WLFI token is down 74% since August, trading around $0.08. But what was a slow bleed turned into a full-blown crisis this week when the project's single largest investor decided to go public with his grievances.

(Click to see the translated tweet)

Justin Sun, the founder of Tron and a man who pledged $75 million to WLFI, posted on X accusing the project of building a "trap door" that allows insiders to freeze token holders' funds. Sun called himself "the first and single largest victim," claiming WLFI has had his token wallet frozen since September.

WLFI fired back hard. The project posted on X accusing Sun of acting in bad faith and declared: "See you in court, pal".

But Sun isn't the only one upset. WLFI was planning to keep tokens owned by early investors locked and unavailable for trading indefinitely. That didn’t last long, and they’re now moving to release as many as 62 billion tokens.

Here's the bigger picture: WLFI borrowed $75 million from Dolomite in February and used 5% of the entire WLFI token supply as collateral. The move will give investors a new vesting schedule and a path to actually selling some tokens.

Whether you love or hate the political angle, this story matters because it's a high-profile test of whether crypto projects backed by powerful names get held to the same standards as everyone else. Right now, the answer is looking like "maybe” 🥴

Bitcoin had a week. The price surged to just under $76,000 on Tuesday, its highest level since early February, before pulling back to consolidate around $74,900–$75,000.

The rally had two big catalysts:

Institutional demand is accelerating. Morgan Stanley's new spot Bitcoin ETF, MSBT, crossed $100 million in inflows in its first week, making it the firm's most successful ETF ever. Over 16,000 financial advisors are now authorized to distribute Bitcoin-linked products. This isn't speculative retail money. It's pension funds and corporate treasuries making long-term allocations.

Rumors of… peace, not war. The first round of peace talks between Iran and the US were not successful, but there are strong rumors going around that the next set of talks are already being planned, and that Iran is keen on making a deal. Bitcoin liked that news.

So why can't it hold above $75K? On-chain data shows investors are taking profits into strength. The options market isn't fully buying the rally either, with traders still biased toward downside hedges. As crypto analysts at Marex put it, $75,000 is "both the milestone and the ceiling".

The setup is constructive. But until the profit-taking fades and spot demand broadens, Bitcoin is still just knocking on the door.

This is one of those stories that sounds boring on the surface and is actually enormous.

Charles Schwab, the brokerage giant with $12.2 trillion in client assets and 38.9 million active brokerage accounts, has opened a waitlist for direct Bitcoin and Ether trading through a new product called "Schwab Crypto".

The plan is a phased rollout: Schwab employees first, then a small early-access group from the waitlist, then a broader launch through the first half of 2026.

Here's what makes this different from the ETF wave. When you buy IBIT or MSBT, you're buying a fund that holds Bitcoin on your behalf. When you buy through Schwab Crypto, you're buying actual Bitcoin and Ether. It's offered through Schwab's banking subsidiary (Charles Schwab Premier Bank), not the brokerage platform, which is a regulatory distinction that matters.

There are limitations at launch. No external crypto deposits, no withdrawals to self-custody wallets, no staking, no limit orders, and it's not available in New York or Louisiana (Yahoo Finance). So if you're a "not your keys, not your coins" purist, this isn't for you yet.

But here's the thing: Schwab processes 9.9 million trades per day. That's a record. If even a fraction of those clients start allocating to crypto, the demand pressure will be significant. And unlike Robinhood or Coinbase, Schwab's client base skews older, wealthier, and more conservative. These are the people who weren't going to download a crypto app. They were waiting for their existing brokerage to offer it.

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That's all for this week. A billionaire feud with the president's crypto company, Bitcoin flirting with $76K and playing hard to get, and Charles Schwab quietly preparing to onboard millions of new crypto holders. Is it overall bullish or overall negative? Tell us your thoughts!

If you enjoyed this, share The Chain with a friend. We'll see you next Thursday.

Until then,
- The Chain Team

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