The first investment of WLFI was $100 million, where is Aqua1?

Recently, Aqua 1, a little-known Web3 fund, announced that it has strategically purchased WLFI, the governance token of the Trump family project World Liberty Financial ("WLFI").

As early as two weeks before the announcement, on-chain data had captured clues: an ENS address called "aqua 1.eth" spent a total of $80 million to buy at least 800 million WLFI tokens in batches. Of the $100 million subscription, the remaining $20 million has not yet been discovered.

The fund is quite secretive, and the official domain name was only registered on May 28. According to public information, Aqua 1 is headquartered in the United Arab Emirates and focuses on primary market investment and secondary asset management in the Web3 field.

Following the investment in WLFI, Aqua 1 will also co-develop and incubate BlockRock, an institutional-grade RWA platform, with plans to set up another fund, Aqua Fund, in the Middle East.

Having invested hundreds of millions of dollars on the Trump family project at the beginning of its establishment, what is Aqua 1? What is its secret connection to the Trump family?

Image courtesy of Reuters

The founder, Dave Lee, may be a Chinese South American chaebol

According to people close to Aqua 1, Aqua 1's founder and general partner, Dave Lee, has a big background.

Dave Lee graduated from New York University Business School, has worked in UBS, Tiger Global and other well-known Wall Street institutions, has nearly 10 years of experience in traditional investment banking and cross-border M&A funds, and is familiar with the operation logic of global capital markets and strategic investment layout.

Less well known than his Wall Street background is Dave Lee's South American chaebol background. Dave Lee comes from a prominent business family of Chinese descent in Brazil, and his family's business spans key sectors such as import and export trade, mining, real estate, energy, and sports and entertainment. It is reported that he has close ties with some of the most powerful royals in the Middle East, and the two sides may be brewing a series of strategic cooperation.

Despite his background, Dave Lee rarely talks publicly about his family's affairs, and there are still many unanswered questions about his business layout. According to people familiar with the matter, his investment movements often have long-term strategic intentions and often coincide with subtle changes in international capital flows. Some analysts believe that the resource network behind him may be far beyond what appears on the surface, and in the future, it may carry out more secretive and far-reaching operations in many key markets around the world.

It may not be coincidental that Aqua 1 reached a strategic cooperation with WLFI in its first investment, and behind it is a professional team that has been deeply engaged in the Web3 field for ten years, with rich experience in key technical fields such as distributed system development and cryptoeconomic design, as well as capital background and industrial resources across South and North America.

Throwing $100 million at the RWA trillion dollar market?

Aqua 1's $100 million strategic partnership with the Trump family's project WLFI may not be a simple financial investment, but a key step for Aqua 1 in the Web3 field, especially in the direction of RWA.

As can be seen from the investment news announced by Aqua 1, the purpose of this investment is to accelerate the construction of a financial ecosystem with blockchain development, RWA tokenization, and stablecoin integration as the core. With the imminent passage of the GENIUS Stablecoin Act in the United States, RWA, stablecoins, and crypto payments are the core tracks of this year, and they are also the key directions for Aqua 1 bets.

As a project participated in and supported by Trump and his family members, WLFI's Web3 layout is directly aimed at RWA and stablecoins, and its goal is to integrate the stability of traditional finance and the openness of blockchain, and is committed to becoming a bridge between traditional finance and the future digital world.

The current digital dollar stablecoin USD1 launched by WLFI is also the first president-endorsed stablecoin, and its market capitalization has exceeded $2.2 billion. USD1's political background aura has also helped it become one of the most high-profile and potential stablecoins after USDT and USDC.

In terms of accelerated adoption, USD1 has been adopted by nearly 20 CEXs or DeFi protocols and crypto wallets. USD1 has also gradually penetrated into payment scenarios such as real-world consumption, WLFI has launched a global debit card that supports USD1, and AEON Pay has integrated USD1, which can be used by more than 20 million offline merchants in Southeast Asia.

For Aqua 1, which has multiple traditional industrial resources in South America, more important than the $100 million financial investment is to catch the Trump family's RWA Express and quickly open up the market for the tokenization of its traditional industry resources.

For WLFI, the Aqua 1 team can also assist WLFI in expanding into South America, Europe, Asia and emerging markets.

At present, no further details have been announced about the RWA platform BlockRock, which Aqua 1 plans to jointly develop and incubate with WLFI. However, it can be expected that the commercial footprint of Aqua 1 and WLFI in traditional fields, as well as the political forces behind it, will bring a natural advantage to BlockRock's compliance and growth.

Bet on the strategic ambitions behind the Trump family project

On the face of it, Aqua 1's first investment in WLFI is aimed at expanding RWA, but its strategic ambitions may go far beyond that. The vision of the group behind Aqua 1 seems to be to integrate the resources of the Middle East, South America and North America, trying to build a cross-regional Web3 ecological network.

Judging by the name Aqua 1 and the future plans announced by its team, Aqua 1 may just be the future branch of the group behind it.

According to the press release, WLFI will also help the Aqua 1 team set up another fund, the "Aqua Fund", in the Middle East. The foundation works with key interest groups in the Middle East to accelerate the transformation of the Middle East's digital economy through blockchain infrastructure, AI integration, and Web3 applications, and also plans to list on secondary trading markets such as the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) to provide liquidity to investors.

The reason why Aqua 1 was successfully invested in WLFI may also be based on the foundation of cooperation between the group behind it and the Trump family in the traditional business field. By investing in WLFI, Aqua 1 also quickly formed a strategic alliance with the presidential family in the Web3 chess game.

Aqua 1's roots in South America and emerging markets, as well as the Trump family's business and political influence in North America and around the world, complement each other's capabilities in the Web3 space.

By integrating financial innovation in the Middle East, resource networks in South America, and market influence in North America, Aqua 1 and WLFI may be joining forces to build a global Web3 financial ecosystem.