$100M investor in Trump’s World Liberty Monetary denies hyperlinks to banned Chinese language market maker
Aqua1 Basis, a UAE-based investor within the World Liberty Monetary (WLFI) DeFi challenge, has publicly denied affiliation with Chinese language market-making agency Web3Port.
The clarification is available in response to rising hypothesis surrounding the fund’s current $100 million funding in World Liberty Monetary, a blockchain challenge with ties to US President Donald Trump.
Relationship with Web3Port?
On July 15, Aqua1 emphasised that it operates independently and has no monetary, fairness, or operational relationship with Web3Port.
Web3Port is a Chinese language crypto agency embroiled in a scandal involving the numerous selloff of Motion Labs’ MOVE tokens. This situation resulted within the agency’s ban from a number of exchanges, together with Binance.
Dave Lee, co-founder of Aqua1, additionally addressed the matter, saying that he left his earlier position earlier this 12 months as a consequence of differing visions and helped launch Aqua1 as a part of a broader DeFi infrastructure initiative within the UAE.
Lee additional said that Aqua1 is collaborating with institutional companions throughout the Center East. Whereas affirming the group’s dedication to transparency, he famous that sure disclosures stay restricted as a consequence of ongoing regulatory processes.
Questions come up over Aqua1’s buy of $100 million WLFI
The denial follows an investigative report by journalist David Silverman, who raised recent considerations concerning the origin of Aqua1’s $100 million WLFI buy final month.
Silverman urged that Aqua1 could have undisclosed ties to Web3Port, citing technical particulars comparable to shared Amazon Net Companies (AWS) infrastructure between Aqua1’s web site and domains affiliated with Web3Port and Blockrock. He additionally famous that Dave Lee had beforehand labored for each companies.
Including to the hypothesis, the report urged that “Dave Lee” could also be an alias for David Jia Hua Li, a Chinese language-Brazilian nationwide with a background in a state-owned power firm. Silverman questioned how somebody with that profile might entry such substantial capital and whether or not geopolitical motivations is likely to be at play.
These allegations have drawn consideration from figures comparable to former US Congressman Tom Malinowski, who questioned whether or not international pursuits is likely to be influencing the US political scene by way of large-scale crypto investments.
The previous lawmaker sarcastically mentioned:
“I’m certain it’s only a regular industrial deal made with cash he had mendacity round and no assist from international pursuits attempting to affect our president.”
