“We do not seek to blacklist anyone,” WLFI wrote.

"We respond when alerted to malicious or high-risk activity that could harm community members. User safety > everything.”

Ogle emphasized he’s not the person pressing the blacklist button nor handling appeals. “I have absolutely nothing to do with this process” but said the rationale is straightforward: AML and sanctions exposure can’t be ignored.

For context, World Liberty Financial calls itself the company bridging the gap between “Web2 and Web3” and “breaking barriers for the unbanked,” on the company’s website.

Ironically, the project is now facing backlash for allegedly engaging in the very practice it was meant to oppose “debanking. ” Eric Trump has repeatedly used the term to describe the family’s own exclusion from traditional banking, framing it as the reason they embraced crypto. He has often portrayed digital assets as a way to restore financial autonomy, making the blacklisting of WLFI addresses a striking contradiction in the eyes of many in the crypto community.

“It’s not a bank… In this case, it’s just an investment. You still have access to these tokens if you want them, you can buy them on the open market. No one has restrictions on that. It’s just the private [sale] part… that there are restrictions around,” Ogle responded to comments of at least 273 addresses being blacklisted.

Critics cry foul, and question the tools

Bruno Skvorc, a Polygon developer, claimed his address was labeled “high risk” and alleged that WLFI “stole [his] money.”

“This is the new age mafia,” he wrote on X. “There is no one to complain to, no one to argue with, no one to sue.”

Skvorc later posted the compliance flags he says were cited, an old Tornado Cash interaction (40 ETH), indirect links to sanctioned venues Garantex and Netex24, and a touchpoint with a dashboard later marked as a scam.

On-chain investigator ZachXBT warned that popular compliance screens too often mislabel addresses as “high risk” due to noisy heuristics (e.g., distant “hops,” routine DeFi interactions):

This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Sep 6, 2025, where it first appeared in the Policy section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.