{"id":25350,"date":"2025-07-15T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/buyer-of-trump-tokens-suspected-in-move-token-dump\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T18:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T15:30:00","slug":"buyer-of-trump-tokens-suspected-in-move-token-dump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/buyer-of-trump-tokens-suspected-in-move-token-dump\/","title":{"rendered":"Buyer of &#8216;Trump Tokens&#8217; Suspected in MOVE Token Dump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A UAE-based crypto fund, Aqua 1 Foundation, is suspected of having ties with the Hong Kong market maker Web3Port, previously <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/movement-labs-investigates-market-maker-collusion\">accused<\/a> of market manipulation. This is according to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacobsilverman.com\/p\/revealed-trumps-100-million-man\">investigation<\/a> by independent journalist Jacob Silverman.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the fund purchased tokens worth $100 million from World Liberty Financial (WLF), a company linked to U.S. President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Accusations<\/h2>\n<p>Last month, the allegedly fictitious company Aqua 1 Foundation announced a deal with WLF. The firm&#8217;s only public representative was &#8220;Dave Lee,&#8221; who had a minimally active profile on the social network X. Blockchain data shows that a structure associated with Aqua 1 has already sent WLF at least $80 million in USDT.<\/p>\n<p>Silverman began his investigation by analyzing Aqua 1&#8217;s website. He discovered that domains affiliated with the Hong Kong crypto investor group Web3Port and other similar projects were hosted on the same server. &#8220;Dave Lee&#8221; himself mentioned his connection to one of these projects on X.<\/p>\n<p>The journalist found a person named David Jia Hua Lee, who represented Web3Port at public events in Singapore, Dubai, and Hong Kong. Silverman located his LinkedIn profile, where he was tagged in posts from conferences. After the journalist sent David Lee a message with questions about Aqua 1, Lee deleted his account.<\/p>\n<p>David Lee&#8217;s identity is corroborated by other data. The locations listed in &#8220;Dave Lee&#8217;s&#8221; X profile\u2014New York, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, and S\u00e3o Paulo\u2014match David Lee&#8217;s biography. He studied in New York, worked in Hong Kong, his company Web3Port focuses on the UAE, and he has Brazilian roots.<\/p>\n<p>This information is partially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chaincatcher.com\/en\/article\/2189999\">confirmed<\/a> by a Chinese crypto publication, which previously described &#8220;Dave Lee&#8221; as a New York University graduate from a Chinese-Brazilian family.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>&#8220;How did a 30-year-old finance specialist working for a Chinese state energy company get $100 million to buy tokens from the main crypto firm of the U.S. president? And what do he and his colleagues expect in return?&#8221; Silverman wondered.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Aqua 1&#8217;s Position<\/h2>\n<p>Lee called the journalist&#8217;s report &#8220;factually incorrect.&#8221; He stated that he has already contacted the author for clarification.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Came across some factually incorrect reporting regarding both myself and Aqua1 today. We\u2019re already in touch with the journalist involved to clarify. <br \/>Appreciate the continued interest and support \u2014 more from us soon.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dave Lee (@LeeDave_Aqua) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LeeDave_Aqua\/status\/1944960752626098256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 15, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Aqua 1 also released a statement. It asserts that the company operates independently and has no financial or operational ties with other organizations.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Aqua1 Official Statement<\/p>\n<p>We have noticed recent online speculation regarding Aqua1 and its team, which has led to some public misunderstanding. To prevent the spread of misinformation, we would like to clarify the following:<\/p>\n<p>Team Background<\/p>\n<p>Dave Lee joined Aqua1 as co-founder\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Aqua1 Foundation (@Aqua1Fndn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Aqua1Fndn\/status\/1945041280972820814?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 15, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>However, neither the fund nor Lee specified which details in the report were inaccurate.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>&#8220;We are committed to transparency, but some details fall under current regulatory procedures and cannot be disclosed,&#8221; Aqua 1 stated.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Lee added that he left his previous job due to &#8220;fundamental differences in vision and strategy.&#8221; He did not specify which company he departed from.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Pleased to see the facts laid out clearly. Aqua1 is independently operated, with no equity, financial, or operational ties to any unrelated entity. <br \/>I stepped away from my role at my previous employer earlier this year due to fundamental differences in vision and strategy, and\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9414aK3QAG\">https:\/\/t.co\/9414aK3QAG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dave Lee (@LeeDave_Aqua) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LeeDave_Aqua\/status\/1945052684605907294?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 15, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Binance <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/binance-acts-against-market-maker-for-move-token-manipulation\">blacklisted<\/a> Web3Port due to price manipulation of MOVE tokens from the Movement Labs project.<\/p>\n<p>Subsequently, the Movement Network team <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/movement-network-probes-market-maker-anomaly\">initiated<\/a> an investigation into the &#8220;market maker anomaly.&#8221; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A UAE-based crypto fund, Aqua 1 Foundation, is suspected of having ties with the Hong Kong market maker Web3Port, previously accused of market manipulation. This is according to an investigation by independent journalist Jacob Silverman. Additionally, the fund purchased tokens worth $100 million from World Liberty Financial (WLF), a company linked to U.S. President Donald [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1323],"class_list":["post-25350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-investigations"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"101","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}