Drain $2,5 million and forget about it: what’s wrong with World Liberty Financial

World Liberty Financial, a project linked to the family of current US President Donald Trump’s family, has quickly become one of the largest cryptocurrency startups. GetBlock AML Research publishes the dark past of the project’s creators, which may shed light on their current activities.

Background

The co-founders of World Liberty Financial are Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman. Even before the creation of this project, they had another project — Dough Finance, which attracted investor funds for high-risk DeFi trading. The platform didn’t last long and was hacked by hackers in July 2024. Dough Finance’s liquidity pool, which held about $2,5 million, was emptied. The developers managed to recover only $281 000.

Photos by Chase Herro and Zach Folkman

Following the hack, Dough Finance shut down operations and released a roadmap to restart the project. The platform’s founders promised that:

• They will distribute $281 000 to investors and vote on further organization of project management;
• Dough debt tokens will be issued to compensate for lost funds;
• They will develop a mechanism for burning and redeeming tokens.

None of the above items were fulfilled by the creators of Dough Finance. In this regard, the largest investor in the project, Jonathan Lopez, who invested $1 million, filed a fraud lawsuit against Herro and Folkman. The first court hearing will take place in April 2026.

New project

Just two months after the collapse of Dough Finance, Herro and Folkman co-founded a new project, World Liberty Financial. In less than a year of its existence, the project raised more than $550 million through the public support of the family of US President Donald Trump. According to NYT sources, Herro and Folkman were introduced to the Trump family by Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East.

Even though World Liberty Financial positions itself as a decentralized platform, the profits generated by the project are distributed centrally. 75% ($400 million) of World Liberty Financial’s total net profits went to Trump-affiliated DT Marks DEFI. The remaining 25% (roughly $65 million) was siphoned off to an organization owned by Herro and Folkman.

At the moment, Herro and Folkman completely ignore requests from journalists and affected users about the consequences of the Dough Finance hack and the further fate of the project.