World Liberty Financial's WLFI governance token dropped 12% on April 10 to its lowest price since the project launched in 2025. The sell-off came less than 24 hours after the Trump-backed DeFi venture publicly defended its lending position on Dolomite, according to CoinDesk. The defense did not work.
$65.6 Million in Buybacks, Now 48% Underwater
The depth of the damage becomes clearer in the treasury numbers. WLFI disclosed $65.58 million in open-market buybacks over the past six months, acquiring 435.3 million tokens at an average price of $0.1507 each. With the token now trading at record lows, those purchases are sitting roughly 48% below cost.
That is not a rounding error. The treasury spent tens of millions propping up a token that has since lost nearly half its value from the buyback average. The buybacks were meant to signal confidence. Instead, they are now the single largest documented loss on the project's balance sheet.
An additional 3 billion WLFI tokens sit in an intermediary wallet, valued at approximately $234 million as of this week, down from $266 million the week prior. The token's decline is eroding the project's collateral base in real time.
The Dolomite Position Has Grown
When we covered this story yesterday, the reported borrowing stood at $75 million in stablecoins. Updated reporting from The Crypto Times now puts the total at $150 million in USDC borrowed against approximately 5 billion WLFI tokens, with additional stablecoins including WLFI's own USD1.
WLFI now controls over 50% of Dolomite's total supplied assets. More than $40 million of the borrowed funds were sent to Coinbase Prime.
The project dismissed concerns as "FUD," citing $159.5 million in annualized USD1 stablecoin revenue and claiming it could simply "supply more collateral" if the market moved against it. The collateral in question is more WLFI, the same token that just hit all-time lows.
The Circular Risk Loop Tightens
The structure has not changed since yesterday, but the math has. Every percentage point WLFI falls reduces the value of the collateral backing the Dolomite loans, which increases the risk that the position eventually becomes undercollateralized, which puts further pressure on the token.
Posting more WLFI as a defense only works if WLFI holds its value. If it does not, the project is feeding a declining asset into a position that declines alongside it. Critics have described this as "high-risk looping that amplifies leverage while masking downside exposure."
The advisor overlap remains: Dolomite co-founder Corey Caplan advises World Liberty Financial. The borrower, the lending protocol's advisor, and the collateral token all connect to the same circle. The USD1 pool on Dolomite still shows utilization above 90%, meaning depositors who lent stablecoins to the pool still cannot fully withdraw.
Market Context
Bitcoin traded at $72,945 as of April 10, 2026, up 3.4% in 24 hours and 9% over the past week. Ethereum was at $2,247, up 4%. The Fear and Greed index sat at 49 (Neutral). The broader market rally made WLFI's 12% drop in the opposite direction more conspicuous, not less.
The rest of the crypto market had a strong day. WLFI did not.
What Depositors Are Left With
For WLFI token holders, the picture is straightforward: the project spent $65.6 million buying tokens that are now worth roughly $34 million at current prices. That is a $31.5 million unrealized loss on buybacks alone.
For Dolomite depositors, the picture is worse. Their stablecoins remain locked in a pool dominated by a single borrower whose collateral is falling. The "anchor borrower" framing that WLFI offered as reassurance has aged poorly in under 24 hours.
The token's all-time low is not just a price on a chart. It is the market telling the project that borrowing $150 million against your own governance token, on a protocol your advisor co-founded, and then calling criticism "FUD" when the token crashes, is not a credible strategy.
Overview
WLFI dropped 12% to all-time lows on April 10, one day after the project defended its Dolomite lending position. Treasury buybacks totaling $65.6 million are now 48% underwater. The total borrowed amount has been reported at $150 million, double the initial $75 million figure. WLFI's response, that it would post more of its own declining token as collateral, did not stop the sell-off. Dolomite depositors remain unable to fully withdraw, and the project now accounts for over half the protocol's total supplied assets.
