Gold Hits Record High as $370M in Crypto Futures Liquidated; WLFI Seeks Stability After Turbulent Launch

Gold crossed the $3,500-per-ounce milestone for the first time on Tuesday, underscoring investor appetite for traditional safe havens as bitcoin (BTC) hovered around $110,752 in subdued trade. Despite the quiet spot market, crypto exchanges liquidated roughly $370 million worth of futures positions in the past 24 hours, as expectations for a BTC downturn were upended.

Blockchain data provider Lookonchain reported that whale address 0xFf15 sold 425 BTC, valued at $46.5 million, in exchange for over 10,500 ETH during the past four days. At the same time, Glassnode noted that long-term holders realized gains by spending 97,000 BTC on Friday.

Derivatives Snapshot

Liquidations triggered a decline in open interest (OI) across most leading tokens, with BTC as the exception. Its OI rose more than 1%, suggesting renewed inflows. XRP’s chart printed a “spinning bottom” candle, hinting at potential bullish reversal signals, but OI in USD- and USDt-based perpetuals slipped 5.69% on weak spot activity.

Funding rates for BTC, ETH and other majors hovered just above zero, reflecting a slight long bias. On CME, BTC futures positioning stayed light, while ether futures retained near-record OI at 2 million contracts. Deribit options skewed bearish on BTC, with puts priced higher than calls out to December. Ether options also leaned toward puts, though less aggressively. SOL and XRP options, in contrast, pointed to stronger demand for upside exposure.

Block flows showed defensive positioning: traders picked up September $105K BTC puts and sold October $135K calls, while ETH traders focused on $3,800 and $4,200 puts.

WLFI Developments

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the Trump-linked DeFi initiative, announced plans for a buyback-and-burn program aimed at easing investor concerns. Fees generated from WLFI liquidity pools on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Solana would be directed toward purchasing tokens on the open market and permanently burning them, reframing the token around engineered scarcity.

WLFI currently trades at $0.23 with a $6.39 billion market cap—down 24% on the day and well below the $40 billion-plus futures valuations seen at launch. A separate governance proposal seeks to stake 80% of locked supply into pools, distributing rewards from a 20% reserve. Advocates call it a way to activate idle tokens, while critics describe it as circular tokenomics.

The project’s launch has been marred by security breaches. Hackers exploited Ethereum’s EIP-7702 delegate contract feature to drain tokens from user wallets, with some victims salvaging only a fraction of their holdings. SlowMist founder Yu Xian warned the exploit activates when compromised users attempt transfers, instantly diverting funds.

Compounding the chaos, scam clones and phishing links circulated widely on Telegram and X, further trapping retail investors. The convergence of price collapse, governance disputes, and security flaws underscores WLFI’s fragile early trajectory.