What are World Liberty Financial and USD1?

• WLF's current core product is the USD1 stablecoin , a 1:1 U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin fully backed by cash and U.S. Treasury reserves.
• The surge of stablecoin USD1 primarily stems from a $2 billion equity investment in Binance by Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX, during which USD1 was chosen as the payment currency. And the amount of USD1 currently held at a Binance-associated address is roughly equivalent to that $2 billion.
• WLFI is a pure governance token; it does not confer any rights to dividends or profits, nor does it represent any equity claim in the project company.

Overview of World Liberty Financial (WLF)

World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is a recently established decentralized finance (DeFi) platform closely associated with U.S. President Donald J. Trump and his family. Launched in late 2024, the company’s mission is to “democratize access to DeFi” by providing transparent, accessible, and secure financial tools to a broad audience. In practice, WLF is building a DeFi ecosystem with its own governance token ($WLFI) and a U.S. dollar stablecoin (USD1). WFI is also developing a DeFi Lending Service (in partner with Aave) and a DeFi app, which both are not yet gone live.

Leadership and Ownership

WLF’s leadership blend includes members of the Trump family and veteran crypto entrepreneurs. Trump himself is listed as the company’s “Co Founder Emertius,” which means a previous co-founder, but removed after took office as the U.S. President. His sons Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr and Barron Trump all listed as Co-Founders. Co-founders of the venture also include Zachary (“Zach”) Witkoff (son of Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steven Witkoff), Zak Folkman, and Chase Herro, among others.

Source: https://worldlibertyfinancial.com/about

A Trump-affiliated business entity owns a 40% stake in World Liberty and is entitled to 75% of revenues from token sales.

Source: https://worldlibertyfinancial.com/about

This arrangement has already yielded substantial proceeds – over $400 million from WLFI token sales, according to U.S. Senate investigators. Notably, WLF raised $550 million through two rounds of WLFI governance token sales by early 2025, attracting over 85,000 KYC-verified participants globally.

What is USD1?

USD1 is the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin introduced by World Liberty Financial in March 2025. It is designed to maintain a stable value of $1.00 USD per token, achieved through full fiat asset backing. Each USD1 token is 100% collateralized by high-quality reserve assets, including U.S. dollar cash deposits, short-term U.S. Treasury bills, and other cash equivalents. This means WLF holds an equivalent USD in reserve for every USD1 in circulation, and tokens are redeemable 1:1 for actual U.S. dollars, similar to well-known stablecoins like USDC and USDT.

Growth Trends of USD1

USD1’s adoption has been explosive in its first few months, making it one of the fastest-growing stablecoins to date. Launched in late March 2025, USD1 remained relatively low-profile for a few weeks before surging in circulation in late April. By April 30, 2025, the value of USD1 in circulation reached approximately $2.1 billion.

Source: https://defillama.com/stablecoin/world-liberty-financial-usd

To put this in perspective, USD1 achieved a multi-billion-dollar market capitalization in barely 5 weeks of existence – a growth rate unmatched by any previous stablecoin launch. This meteoric rise was largely driven by a single major catalyst: an exclusive deal involving a $2 billion investment by an Abu Dhabi-based firm MGX, which chose USD1 as the vehicle for the transaction.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/wlfs-zach-witkoff-usd1-selected-official-stablecoin-mgx-investment-binance-2025-05-01/

In essence, one institutional use-case catapulted USD1’s supply from near-zero to the billions, practically overnight (see chart above). As of mid-2025, USD1’s market capitalization hovers around $2.2 billion, placing it among the top stablecoins globally by size.

Trading Volume and Liquidity

Alongside the surge in supply, USD1 has seen substantial trading activity. Daily trading volumes in May–June 2025 have often been in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and at times over $1 billion in 24-hour volume. On June 30, 2025, for instance, the 24-hour trading volume was reported around $1.4 billion. Such volumes indicate active usage, although it’s worth noting that much of the volume may be concentrated in a few venues or even reflect large over-the-counter swaps related to institutional movements.

USD1 Ranked 4th by 24h Volume

Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/view/stablecoin/

Liquidity initially was a concern, liquidity was limited to a Uniswap pool and a PancakeSwap pool and a handful of exchange listings. This meant retail users could face slippage when buying/selling large amounts. However, the situation has improved as market makers step in and exchange support grows.

Adoption & DeFi Use Cases

Binance’s BNB Chain is a focal point for USD1’s growth. 97% of USD1's supply is on the BNB Chain, and majority of that supply just sit in the Binance's hot wallet.

Source: https://defillama.com/stablecoin/world-liberty-financial-usd

Source: https://bscscan.com/token/0x8d0D000Ee44948FC98c9B98A4FA4921476f08B0d#balances

Despite the current limited use cases in DeFi, WLF is actively expanding the stablecoin’s presence in that ecosystem. For instance, WLF partnered with London-based Re7 Labs (an arm of London-based DeFi hedge fund Re7 Capital) to launch a USD1 lending vault on Euler Finance and Lista, two DeFi lending protocols on BNB Chain. This integration means users will soon be able to deposit USD1 into vaults and earn yield or use USD1 as collateral for loans, increasing the coin’s utility in DeFi.

WLFI Token Structure

The WLFI token, central to the World Liberty Financial (WLF) ecosystem, is designed to facilitate governance and operational activities within the platform. WLFI tokens grant holders the right to vote on certain protocol matters, including setting new parameters and making strategic decisions regarding the platform’s development

However, while the WLFI token confers voting rights, the project makes it clear that WLFI is not a DAO token, and World Liberty Financial is not a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Instead, World Liberty Financial is a Delaware-registered non-stock corporation with a board of directors. As a non-stock corporation, it does not have shareholders; rather, it has members, who are currently the board of directors.

This distinction means that from a legal standpoint, the WLFI token does not confer any financial interest in the corporation. Additionally, WLFI holders are not considered members of World Liberty Financial and therefore have no direct ownership or financial stake in the company.

Furthermore, all WLFI tokens will be non-transferable and locked indefinitely in a wallet or smart contract. These tokens will remain locked unless they are unlocked through a governance procedure, provided that such an action complies with applicable law.

Token Allocation and Public Sale

The total supply of WLFI tokens is set at 100 billion, allocated as follows:

• 35% (35 billion tokens) for public sale.
• 32.5% for community growth and incentives: this allocation is planned to be reserved for expanding participation in the governance of the WLF community and for building the protocol.
• 30% for initial supporter allocation
• 2.5% for the team and advisors

Risks and Concerns

While World Liberty Financial’s USD1 presents exciting prospects, it also carries a number of risks and concerns that investors should carefully consider.

The most prominent concern is the clear conflict of interest and governance issues posed by a sitting U.S. President (or his close family) profiting from a private stablecoin venture. This situation is unprecedented. Lawmakers and watchdogs have taken notice – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley have openly criticized the USD1 deal and WLF’s entanglement with the Trump family. The Senators underscored that a Trump-affiliated entity controlling 40% of WLF (with claims to 75% of its crypto revenues) and Trump being listed as a key figure on the website blurs the line between public service and private gain.

The MGX-Binance deal wasalso highlighted as troubling: “foreign government-backed capital and a compromised crypto platform could funnel money directly to Trump and his associates… cutting the Trump and Witkoff families into the deal to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars”. Such strong statements indicate that USD1 is likely to face intense regulatory scrutiny, investigations, or even legislative action aimed at reining it in.