Is the Biggest Investor in WLFI Actually a 'Deadbeat'?

Behind the $100 million WLFI investment, the biggest backer, Zhou Guren, has a triple identity.

Written by: Nicky, Foresight News

According to Caixin on August 26, the UAE investment firm Aqua 1 Foundation previously invested $100 million in the WLFI tokens issued by the Trump family's cryptocurrency project, World Liberty Financial, surpassing the cumulative investment of $75 million by Sun Yuchen, becoming the largest buyer of the project.

For a considerable time, the true identity of Aqua 1's actual controller remained a mystery, but recently, the person behind it has gradually come to light: a Chinese national named Zhou Guren, born in Shanghai in 1984, is the largest backer of this transaction.

The Caixin report also pointed out that Zhou Guren is listed as a person subject to enforcement on China's information disclosure website, involved in six cases with a total debt of approximately 25 million yuan. Additionally, a recent indictment provided by the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service indicates that he is also involved in a money laundering case in the UK. Furthermore, information from Caixin and The New York Times shows that he has connections with the controversial cryptocurrency organization Web3Port.

Zhou Guren met with Welsh officials, including Economic Development Minister Ken Skates, in Shanghai in 2017. Source: Welsh Government.

According to an investigative report published by The New York Times on August 9, Zhou Guren studied in the UK in his early years and started by expanding his family’s wooden flooring business into Europe. He founded the Flooring Republic chain brand, which had over 20 stores, but it ended in liquidation in 2018. Afterward, he transitioned into the cryptocurrency field, founding the Caduceus Protocol project, and in 2022 claimed to have received support from China Merchants Securities (UK) and Bin Zayed Group, both of which later clarified that the statements were unauthorized and false. Around the summer of 2024, Zhou Guren moved from London to Abu Dhabi, after which his associated entities began to frequently appear in the transaction chain of WLFI.

Regarding the financial transactions between Zhou Guren and WLFI, an investigation by The New York Times revealed that the blockchain analysis firm Arkham Intelligence tracked two wallet addresses, one of which, controlled by Web3Port, purchased $20 million worth of WLFI in January 2025, while another wallet marked as "aqua1" bought $80 million in June of the same year. This on-chain trace aligns with the timeline mentioned in the Caixin report: just a week after Trump returned to the White House on January 27, 2025, Web3Port immediately purchased the first batch of WLFI worth $20 million; about a month later, a British Virgin Islands company related to Web3Port initiated a name change, replacing "Web3Port" with "Aqua 1."

Aqua 1 issued a statement in July 2025, denying any equity, financial, or operational ties with unrelated entities.

According to cryptocurrency blogger "CLabs Founder Big Beauty," Reuters reporters had verified Aqua 1's registration information with Abu Dhabi Global Market, Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai's cryptocurrency regulatory body VARA, and the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority, receiving responses that they could not find the institution or related personnel. The blogger also stated that Aqua 1's official website uses the same AWS server as web3port.foundation and web3port.us.

Public information shows that Web3Port was formerly known as ICPort, registered in the British Virgin Islands, positioning itself as a Web3 accelerator and investment platform. It completed about $1 million in seed round financing around 2022, with investors including SNZ Holding, HashKey Capital, FBG Capital, and KuCoin Ventures. Its business covers project packaging, tokenomics design, financing connections, listing negotiations, and "recommended market makers," among others.

According to materials obtained by The New York Times, Web3Port's associated entities underwent name changes before and after being investigated for market making, with the new Aqua 1 GP Limited subsequently becoming the main entity for WLFI investments. The overlap in timing raises questions about whether there is a substantial continuity between Web3Port and Aqua 1.

Prior to this, Zhou Guren's other public record in the cryptocurrency field was Caduceus, a modular protocol positioned as infrastructure for the metaverse and AI. In March 2022, Caduceus announced it had completed a $4 million Series A financing round, with investments from Susquehanna International Group, BlockFills, Qredo, TokenInsight, and others.

According to CoinMarketCap data, its official CAD token began trading on the secondary market in July 2024, reaching about $0.6 at one point that month, but the price has since continued to decline, currently reported at $0.00032, with a market cap of only about $32,000 and a 24-hour trading volume of about $1,720, with only a small amount of trading on Gate.

The failure of Caduceus and its relationship with Web3Port form two intertwined clues in Zhou Guren's cryptocurrency history. Both point to an unresolved core question: how can a person with tens of millions in unpaid debts in China and under investigation for money laundering in the UK become the largest single investor in WLFI?

For WLFI, the compliance of this funding has always been a focal point of external concern. According to The New York Times, Patrick Prinz, COO of Swiss digital asset crime investigation firm Recoveris, stated that Zhou Guren's record of business failures, the sudden appearance of massive wealth, the scale of transactions, and the ongoing money laundering investigation should trigger scrutiny of the source of funds under anti-money laundering regulations. A WLFI spokesperson responded that the company complies with all applicable laws and regulations but declined to specify whether it was aware of the specific source of the funds.

The private interactions between Zhou Guren and the WLFI team have also left public traces. According to The New York Times, in July 2026, Zhou Guren was spotted in a private box at the World Cup final in New Jersey, USA, alongside World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff. This was only about a year after Aqua 1 announced its $100 million investment.