World Liberty Financial, a company backed by the family of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, exchanged around $10 million worth of Coinbase’s wrapped bitcoin (cbBTC) for its rival, WBTC, on Wednesday. Wrapped bitcoin is a form of bitcoin that can be used in decentralized finance (DeFi) on blockchains other than Bitcoin.
Coinbase introduced cbBTC in September and announced in November that it would delist WBTC due to its listing standards. This led to a lawsuit filed by BiT Global, a custodian involved in WBTC, to prevent the removal. On Wednesday, a court ruled against BiT Global. In its defense, Coinbase cited BiT Global’s links to Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron blockchain, who has been accused of fraud and market manipulation in the U.S.
Sun denies the accusations and is also an adviser to World Liberty Financial, a position he gained after investing $30 million in the platform in exchange for WLFI tokens. World Liberty Finance has not explicitly stated its decision to swap the tokens. On-chain data shows it has been active in the market in the past week, picking up millions of dollars worth of Aave (AAVE), Chainlink’s LINK, and Ethena’s ENA tokens, all companies related to it through partnerships or integrations.
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