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AI Financial Explores Sale of Payments Unit After Steep WLFI Treasury Losses
14 Aug 2026, 13:45
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AI Financial is reportedly in talks to sell its main payments business for up to $15 million after a crypto treasury strategy built around the WLFI token left the company facing steep losses and going-concern doubts.
AI Financial is in talks to sell its core payments business, Perpetuals.com, for up to $15 million after a crypto treasury strategy centered on the WLFI token left the company facing serious financial strain, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Under the terms reportedly being discussed, the buyer would pay $5 million upfront in stock, with an additional $10 million tied to future revenue targets. The sale, if completed, would remove AI Financial's only revenue-generating business, a unit that reportedly produced $25 million in revenue last year.
The strain traces back to a large token purchase made in 2025. AI Financial accumulated roughly 7.28 billion tokens issued by World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance venture also linked to the Trump family, spending around $750 million to build the position as part of a broader crypto treasury strategy. WLFI's token price has since fallen more than 80% from its 2025 high, and the resulting mark-to-market losses were significant enough that AI Financial reported a $271 million quarterly loss in May and warned investors of substantial doubt about its ability to continue operating.
The episode illustrates a risk that has become increasingly visible across the corporate treasury sector this year: companies that concentrated balance-sheet exposure in a single volatile token can see losses compound quickly once prices reverse, even when the underlying operating business remains intact. AI Financial's payments unit, the part of the company actually generating revenue, is now reportedly on the table for sale specifically to help address the fallout from the treasury bet rather than because the payments business itself is struggling.
The World Liberty Financial token sale structure has drawn scrutiny beyond AI Financial's specific losses. Reporting has noted that the Trump family was entitled to a majority share of proceeds from WLFI's token sales, with disclosed income separately reported by President Donald Trump running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. As of the most recent trading data cited in reporting, WLFI was changing hands at roughly six cents, down close to 75% over the prior year, underscoring how sharply the token's value has fallen since AI Financial built its position. The proposed sale of Perpetuals.com would give AI Financial fresh capital, but at the cost of giving up the one part of its business that had been reliably generating revenue.
The strain traces back to a large token purchase made in 2025. AI Financial accumulated roughly 7.28 billion tokens issued by World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance venture also linked to the Trump family, spending around $750 million to build the position as part of a broader crypto treasury strategy. WLFI's token price has since fallen more than 80% from its 2025 high, and the resulting mark-to-market losses were significant enough that AI Financial reported a $271 million quarterly loss in May and warned investors of substantial doubt about its ability to continue operating.
The episode illustrates a risk that has become increasingly visible across the corporate treasury sector this year: companies that concentrated balance-sheet exposure in a single volatile token can see losses compound quickly once prices reverse, even when the underlying operating business remains intact. AI Financial's payments unit, the part of the company actually generating revenue, is now reportedly on the table for sale specifically to help address the fallout from the treasury bet rather than because the payments business itself is struggling.
The World Liberty Financial token sale structure has drawn scrutiny beyond AI Financial's specific losses. Reporting has noted that the Trump family was entitled to a majority share of proceeds from WLFI's token sales, with disclosed income separately reported by President Donald Trump running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. As of the most recent trading data cited in reporting, WLFI was changing hands at roughly six cents, down close to 75% over the prior year, underscoring how sharply the token's value has fallen since AI Financial built its position. The proposed sale of Perpetuals.com would give AI Financial fresh capital, but at the cost of giving up the one part of its business that had been reliably generating revenue.