$100 million WLFI investment behind the biggest backer Zhou Guren's triple identity.

Written by: Nicky, Foresight News

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

For a considerable time, the actual controller of Aqua 1 has been a mystery, but recently the figures behind it have gradually come to light: a Chinese national born in Shanghai in 1984, whose real name is Zhou Guren, is the biggest backer of this transaction.

Caixin also reported that Zhou Guren is listed as a dishonest executor in China's information disclosure network, involved in six cases with a total debt of approximately 25 million yuan, and a recent indictment provided by the UK's Royal Prosecutor's Office shows that he is also involved in a money laundering case in the UK. Additionally, multiple sources including Caixin and The New York Times indicate a connection between him and the controversial cryptocurrency institution Web3Port.

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

According to an investigative report by The New York Times published on August 9, Zhou Guren studied in the UK in his early years, starting by expanding his family's wood flooring business to Europe, and once founded the Flooring Republic chain, which had more than 20 stores, but ended in liquidation in 2018. He later transitioned into the cryptocurrency field, founding the Caduceus Protocol project, and in 2022 claimed to have support from China Merchants Securities (UK) and Bin Zayed Group; both firms later clarified that the related 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 blockchain analytics company Arkham Intelligence traced two wallet addresses, one controlled by Web3Port that purchased $20 million WLFI in January 2025, and another marked as "aqua1" that purchased $80 million in June of the same year. This on-chain trace aligns with the timeline mentioned in Caixin's report: a week after Trump's return to the White House on January 27, 2025, Web3Port immediately purchased the first batch of $20 million WLFI; about a month later, a British Virgin Islands company related to Web3Port initiated a name change from "Web3Port" to "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 Beautiful," Reuters reporters had verified Aqua 1's registration information with Abu Dhabi Global Market, Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai cryptocurrency regulator VARA, and the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority, receiving responses indicating that the institution or related personnel could not be found. The blogger also noted that Aqua 1's official website uses the same AWS server as web3port.foundation and web3port.us.

Public information shows that Web3Port, formerly known as ICPort, registered in the British Virgin Islands, is positioned as a Web3 accelerator and investment platform, completing about $1 million in seed financing around 2022, with investors including SNZ Holding, HashKey Capital, FBG Capital, and KuCoin Ventures. Its business encompasses project packaging, token economics design, financing connections, negotiations for listings, and "recommended market makers."

According to materials obtained by The New York Times, the related entities of Web3Port underwent a name change operation before and after being investigated for market making, with the newly established Aqua 1 GP Limited subsequently becoming the entity for WLFI investments. The overlap at this timing has led to ongoing doubts about whether there is a substantive continuity relationship between Web3Port and Aqua 1.

Prior to this, Zhou Guren's other public career in the crypto field was Caduceus, a modular protocol positioned for the metaverse and AI infrastructure. In March 2022, Caduceus announced the completion of a $4 million Series A financing, with investments from Susquehanna International Group, BlockFills, Qredo, TokenInsight, and other institutions.

According to CoinMarketCap data, its official CAD token began trading on the secondary market in July 2024, once reaching approximately $0.6 that month, but has since seen a continuous 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 traded on the Gate exchange.

The failure of Caduceus and its relationship with Web3Port forms two interwoven threads in Zhou Guren's crypto history. Together, they point to an unresolved core question: how can someone with tens of millions in unpaid debts in China and under a money laundering investigation 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, quoting Patrick Prinz, COO of the Swiss digital asset crime investigation company Recoveris, Zhou Guren's record of business failures, the sudden appearance of massive wealth, transaction scale, and ongoing money laundering investigations should trigger source-of-funds reviews under anti-money laundering regulations. A WLFI spokesperson responded that the company complies with all applicable laws and regulations but refused to specify whether it was aware of the specific sources of these funds.

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 with World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff in a private box at the World Cup final in New Jersey, USA. At that time, it was only about a year since Aqua 1 announced its $100 million investment.