Trump-Linked WLFI Buys $3M in Mantle (MNT) Tokens After Major Network Upgrade

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a DeFi project reportedly backed by President Donald Trump's family, has made a significant investment in Mantle (MNT) tokens. The project acquired approximately 3.54 million MNT for around $3 million USDC, averaging 84 cents per token, according to Lookonchain and Arkham Intelligence.

This move follows Mantle Network's major upgrade on March 19, which introduced a hard fork integrating EigenDA—a high-throughput decentralized data availability layer built on Ethereum. The upgrade reportedly increased the network’s throughput to 15 MB/s, enhancing its scalability and aligning it with Ethereum’s upcoming Pectra upgrade. MNT serves both as the gas and governance token for the layer-2 Mantle ecosystem focused on scaling Ethereum.

Following the purchase, WLFI’s crypto portfolio now exceeds $340 million, including holdings in ETH, WBTC, TRX, LINK, AAVE, and ENA. Despite the sizable portfolio, the Trump-affiliated fund is still facing an unrealized loss of $111 million as of the latest data.

MNT reacted positively to the upgrade and WLFI’s purchase, trading about 6% higher on the day at $0.83, according to CoinDesk and TradingView data.

This strategic buy signals growing confidence in Mantle Network’s tech advancements and the broader Ethereum layer-2 space. As EigenDA boosts scalability without data bottlenecks, Mantle aims to position itself as a leading L2 solution, potentially attracting more institutional players like WLFI. The purchase also highlights increasing interest from politically affiliated entities in the decentralized finance landscape, drawing attention to the intersection of crypto, politics, and emerging Web3 infrastructure.