According to zoomer, Aqua 1, the unknown company that donated $100 million to Trump WLFI, has been revealed as the malicious market maker Web3Port. Aqua1 co-founder Dave Lee said before the news broke, "Today I discovered some factual errors in reports about myself and Aqua1. We have contacted the relevant reporters for clarification." [Foresight News]

Aqua 1 Foundation, a little-known UAE-based crypto fund that bought $100 million worth of tokens from Trump-backed World Liberty Financial, is reportedly associated with Web3Port — a Hong Kong market maker accused of market manipulation in the past. The report has since been disputed by Aqua 1 and its co-founder, Dave Lee.The claim comes from independent journalist Jacob Silverman, who alleged in his report that Dave Lee is actually David Jia Hua Li of Web3Port, and that he represented the company as an “acceleration partner” at several public crypto events last year.Silverman's report claimed that, based on a digital footprint, Dave Lee and David Li are both Chinese-Brazilian NYU graduates with a finance background. Silverman also reasoned that David Li was tagged in LinkedIn posts with another profile under the name Peter Li, a manager at China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Silverman said Peter Li's LinkedIn account was deactivated after he sent a message asking about Aqua 1.The report also alleged that Aqua 1's website and Web3Port's share the same AWS server, alongside webpages for RWA tokenization platform BlockRock, which Dave Lee has also associated himself with."By all available evidence, Aqua 1 Foundation’s Dave Lee is the David Li of Web3Port," wrote Silverman. "How did a 30-year-old Chinese-Brazilian finance professional working for a Chinese state energy company secure $100 million to buy crypto tokens from the President of the United States’ main crypto firm? And what do he and his colleagues expect in return?"Silverman had previously written articles that questioned the U.S. President's crypto ties, with one claiming that Tron founder Justin Sun had bribed President Donald Trump by injecting a total of $75 million into World Liberty Financial, after which the U.S. SEC shifted its due course to resolve its litigations against Sun and his companies.Following Silverman's report, Dave Lee wrote on X — "Came across some factually incorrect reporting regarding both myself and Aqua1 today. We’re already in touch with the journalist involved to clarify."Aqua 1 Foundation also posted a statement on the social media channel saying that it operates independently and has no equity, financial, or operational ties to any unrelated entity. Nevertheless, neither Lee nor Aqua 1 elaborated on what specific details in the report were inaccurate."While we remain committed to transparency, certain details are subject to ongoing regulatory and compliance procedures and cannot yet be publicly disclosed," said Aqua 1."I stepped away from my role at my previous employer earlier this year due to fundamental differences in vision and strategy, and took on a founding role at Aqua 1," Lee added in a follow-up post. It did not specify the name of his previous employer.The Block has reached out to Aqua 1 Foundation for further comments.Earlier this year, Web3Port was involved in a scandal where it was accused of market manipulation and faced a ban from multiple exchanges, after an alleged token dump of millions of MOVE tokens belonging to Movement Labs shortly after the token's listing. World Liberty Financial is an investor in Movement Labs. Web3Port was accused of market manipulation involving other crypto projects such as GoPlus and Myshell. [Jacob Silverman]

World Liberty Financial’s $100 million investor Aqua 1 denies connection to Web3Port

On July 15, Aqua1 Foundation issued a statement in response to recent rumors about its team and operations. The statement said that Dave Lee joined Aqua1 as co-founder and CEO in April 2025 and was highly aligned with the team's long-term vision. Aqua1 emphasized that it operates independently and has no equity, financial or operational ties with any unrelated entity. The team is working with Middle Eastern institutions to advance the project, but some details have not been made public due to compliance requirements.
According to previous news, Aqua 1, which had previously invested $100 million in WLFI governance tokens, was revealed to be associated with Web3port. [PANews]

Aqua1 denies any connection with Web3port: the team operates independently, Dave Lee joined as co-founder and CEO in April

The source of funds for the Trump family's crypto project, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), totaling $100 million, has been called into question. The nominal donor, "Aqua 1," is actually a shell company renamed from the sanctioned market maker Web3port, which was banned by multiple DEXs in 2023 for market manipulation. Its founder, "Dave Lee," has an unknown true identity, and Aqua 1 is not registered in the UAE. Funds were injected through offshore accounts and anonymous wallets, with close ties to Web3port. [BeInCrypto]

Aqua 1, which previously invested $100 million in the WLFI governance token, has been revealed to be associated with Web3port.

July 15th, According to Beincrypto, Earlier, Aqua 1 announced a strategic purchase of $1 billion WLFI token and claimed to be from the UAE. However, a recent investigation found that "Aqua 1" is actually a shell company associated with the controversial company Web3port. Web3port is a market maker that was banned by multiple decentralized exchanges in 2023 for suspected market manipulation. The true identity of its founder "Dave Lee" remains a mystery. "Aqua 1" is not registered in the UAE and does not have publicly available leadership information. Although the funds were promoted for "digital freedom infrastructure," they were actually transferred through opaque wallets and offshore accounts, directly linked to Web3port. Previously reported, Aqua 1 announced a strategic purchase of $1 billion in the Trump family's crypto project World Liberty Financial governance token WLFI, aiming to participate in the governance of the decentralized financial platform and accelerate the development of the blockchain financial ecosystem. In addition, Aqua 1 also plans to establish an Aqua Fund in the Middle East and co-incubate the RWA tokenization platform BlockRock with WLFI. [BlockBeats News]

The AQUA 1, who previously purchased $100 million worth of WLFI tokens, has been revealed to be the Web3Port liquidity provider.

On July 15, according to Beincrypto, Aqua 1 previously announced that it had strategically purchased $100 million worth of WLFI tokens and claimed to be from the UAE. However, the latest investigation found that "Aqua 1" is actually a shell company related to the controversial company Web3port. Web3port is a market maker that was banned by multiple decentralized trading platforms in 2023 for suspected market manipulation. The real identity of its founder "Dave Lee" is a mystery. "Aqua 1" is not registered in the UAE and has no public information on its person in charge. Although the funds were promoted for "digital freedom infrastructure," they were actually transferred through opaque wallets and offshore accounts and are directly related to Web3port. According to previous reports, Aqua 1 announced that it had strategically purchased $100 million worth of the Trump family's crypto project World Liberty Financial governance token WLFI, aiming to participate in the governance of the decentralized finance platform and accelerate the construction of the blockchain financial ecosystem. In addition, Aqua 1 also plans to establish the Aqua Fund in the Middle East and jointly incubate the RWA tokenization platform BlockRock with WLFI. [BlockBeats]

AQUA 1, which previously purchased $100 million worth of WLFI tokens, has been revealed to be the market maker Web3Port.

On July 15, according to Beincrypto, Aqua 1 previously announced that it had strategically purchased $100 million worth of WLFI tokens and claimed to be from the UAE. However, the latest investigation found that "Aqua 1" is actually a shell company related to the controversial company Web3port. Web3port is a market maker that was banned by multiple decentralized trading platforms in 2023 for suspected market manipulation. The real identity of its founder "Dave Lee" is a mystery. "Aqua 1" is not registered in the UAE and has no public information on its person in charge. Although the funds were promoted for "digital freedom infrastructure," they were actually transferred through opaque wallets and offshore accounts and are directly related to Web3port. According to previous reports, Aqua 1 announced that it had strategically purchased $100 million of the Trump family's crypto project World Liberty Financial governance token WLFI, aiming to participate in the governance of the decentralized finance platform and accelerate the construction of the blockchain financial ecosystem. In addition, Aqua 1 plans to establish the Aqua Fund in the Middle East and jointly incubate the RWA tokenization platform BlockRock with WLFI. [BlockBeats]

On July 15, according to zoomer, Aqua 1, the unknown company that donated $100 million to Trump WLFI, was revealed to be the malicious market maker Web3Port. Previously, Web3port had been accused of malicious market making activities on Binance for one of its portfolio projects. [TechFlow]

Zoomer: Unknown company Aqua 1, which donated $100 million to WLFI, revealed to be Web3Port

On July 15, according to Beincrypto, the source of funds for World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a decentralized financial project supported by Trump, was exposed as suspicious. Previously, a mysterious donor named "Aqua 1" announced that it would provide $100 million to the project and claimed to be from the UAE. However, the latest investigation found that "Aqua 1" is actually a shell company related to the controversial company Web3port.
It is reported that Web3port is a market maker that was banned by multiple decentralized exchanges in 2023 for suspected market manipulation. Its founder "Dave Lee" is active on the Internet only with an anime avatar, and his true identity remains a mystery. "Aqua 1" is not registered in the UAE, and no information about the person in charge has been made public.
While the funds were advertised as being used for “digital freedom infrastructure,” they were transferred through opaque wallets and offshore accounts directly linked to Web3port.
Earlier news, Aqua 1 announced a strategic investment of US$100 million in WLFI governance tokens. [PANews]

Aqua 1, which previously invested $100 million in WLFI governance tokens, was revealed to be associated with Web3port

The mysterious company Aqua 1, which donated $100 million to Trump-related project WLFI, has been revealed as malicious market maker Web3Port. Aqua 1 co-founder Dave Lee said before the relevant news was exposed, "Today I discovered that some reports about myself and Aqua 1 contain factual errors, and I have contacted relevant reporters for clarification." Previously, Web3Port was accused of conducting malicious market making operations on Binance for one of its portfolio projects. (zoomer) [Odaily Planet Daily News]

Zoomer: Unknown company Aqua 1, which donated $100 million to Trump WLFI, revealed to be Web3Port

据zoomer报道，向Trump WLFI捐赠1亿美元的未知公司Aqua 1已被揭露为恶意做市商Web3Port。Aqua1联合创始人Dave Lee在消息曝光前表示：“今天我发现关于我本人和Aqua1的报道中存在一些事实错误。我们已联系相关记者进行澄清。”【Foresight News】

Zoomer：此前向Trump WLFI捐赠了1亿美元的未知公司Aqua 1，现已被揭示为Web3Port

據zoomer報道，向Trump WLFI捐贈1億美元的未知公司Aqua 1已被揭露爲惡意做市商Web3Port。Aqua1聯合創始人Dave Lee在消息曝光前表示：“今天我發現關於我本人和Aqua1的報道中存在一些事實錯誤。我們已聯繫相關記者進行澄清。”【Foresight News】