In the hours leading up to President Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration, the decentralized finance project with ties to his family, World Liberty Financial, accumulated significant amounts of bitcoin and ether.

The Ethereum Foundation, the organization overseeing the development of the second-largest blockchain by market capitalization, is moving 50,000 ether (ETH) worth approximately $162 million to participate in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

Hours after his inauguration, President Donald Trump appointed Republican U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner Mark T. Uyeda to serve as the interim Chairman of the agency.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Trump-Linked DeFi Project World Liberty Financial Makes Massive Crypto Purchases Ahead of Inauguration
• Ethereum Foundation Allocates 50,000 ETH to Participate in DeFi
• Trump Appoints Republican SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda as Interim Chair

Trump-Linked DeFi Project World Liberty Financial Makes Massive Crypto Purchases Ahead of Inauguration

In the hours leading up to President Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration, the decentralized finance project with ties to his family, World Liberty Financial, accumulated significant amounts of bitcoin and ether.

Data from Arkham Intelligence shows that the protocol’s wallet address bought $46.8 million in ETH and $46.7 million in wrapped bitcoin within four hours, often at a pace of over $4 million per purchase.

The wallet has also expanded its holdings in several altcoins including ethene, wrapped tron, chainlink, aave, and Uniswap’s UNI. The purchases were carried out via decentralized exchange CoW Protocol.

World Liberty Financial’s wallet holdings have, as a result of the accumulation, topped $338 million during Inauguration Day, with the majority of the funds concentrated in BTC, ETH, and USDC.

Ethereum Foundation Allocates 50,000 ETH to Participate in DeFi

The Ethereum Foundation, the organization overseeing the development of the second-largest blockchain by market capitalization, is moving 50,000 ether (ETH) worth approximately $162 million to participate in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

The Foundation will establish a multi-signature wallet using technology from Safe to manage the wallet, and has already executed a test transaction with Aave, a prominent lending protocol within the DeFi ecosystem.

The foray into DeFi comes as the Foundation’s treasury contracted by 39% in under three years, to $970.2 million as of Oct. 31, with the majority of its holdings being in ether.

According to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, the Foundation has refrained from staking its ETH to generate revenue through staking rewards due to regulatory and neutrality concerns. At the current Composite Ether Staking Rate, the Foundation could potentially earn a 3.31% yield on its ether holdings.

Trump Appoints Republican SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda as Interim Chair

Hours after his inauguration, President Donald Trump appointed Republican U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner Mark T. Uyeda to serve as the interim Chairman of the agency.

Uyeda’s appointment comes at a pivotal moment, as the SEC is set to undergo an overhaul in the wake of former Chair Gary Gensler’s departure. The interim SEC chair has called the regulator’s approach to crypto enforcement as “poorly conceived” under Gensler, and called for more clarity in how crypto is regulated.

In a March speech, Uyeda and fellow SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said that the “environment we have created for the crypto asset markets, especially as it related to secondary trading, is untenable.”

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