President Donald Trump’s crypto portfolio continues to grow. His crypto project World Liberty Financial has launched a stablecoin, or a token pegged to a fiat currency like the U.S. dollar, according to Bitcoin or Ethereum can soar or plummet 10% in hours. As their name implies, stablecoins are designed not to fluctuate. This is achieved by creating a reserve, typically in cash or Treasury bills, that back the stablecoin on a one-to-one basis.
Stablecoins can serve as a cash equivalent, and are especially popular with traders because they provide a shelter from volatility. They don't require investors to go from crypto to fiat currency. The two largest stablecoins are USDT and USDC, which have market capitalizations of about $143 billion and $60 billion, respectively.
What is USD1?
The Trump family's new stablecoin seems similar to existing tokens on the market. Its Tuesday announcement said USD1 is backed by Treasury bills, cash, and cash equivalents. BitGo, a crypto custodian, will manage the stablecoin's reserves. And the press release said the World Liberty Financial stablecoin will avoid "complex yield-generating mechanisms." A spokesperson for World Liberty Financial confirmed that this means holders of the cryptocurrency won't receive interest.
The same spokesperson declined to specify when USD1 would fully go live. When asked how USD1 will compete against dominant stablecoins like USDC and USDT, the World Liberty Financial representative said that the team respects "the scale and trust they’ve built."
Why would the Trump family launch its own stablecoin?
Stablecoins are big business. Tether, the company behind USDT, reported that it had netted $13 billion in 2024 in an unaudited financial statement. And Circle, the company behind USDC, is reportedly planning to go public.
Tether and Circle back their stablecoins, pegged to the U.S. dollar, with treasuries, or tranches of U.S. debt. While holders of stablecoins don’t receive interest, stablecoin issuers can pocket sometimes 5% off of their treasuries, which accrue yield. It’s easy money. Tether bagged its billions in profit with only about 100 employees as of August. By comparison, Cisco, the telecom giant, needed 90,000 employees to net $12.6 billion.
What is World Liberty Financial?
Announced in August, World Liberty Financial is one of Trump’s crypto products, which also include NFTs and a memecoin. The project is focused on DeFi, or decentralized finance. DeFi applications aim to replicate the businesses of banks—lending and borrowing—but on blockchains.
World Liberty Financial’s product plans are vague. It hasn’t launched yet, and its website has few details on what its platform does. The project's “gold paper" says it intends to be a hub where users can access a suite of DeFi applications, like decentralized lenders or decentralized crypto exchanges. Trump is listed as “Chief Crypto Advocate".
What has World Liberty Financial done so far?
World Liberty Financial’s product is still under wraps, but it has allowed people to buy its own cryptocurrency: $WLFI. The token allows users to vote on certain proposals that govern the yet-be-launched DeFi platform, according to the gold paper.
Investors have flooded into the Trump family’s cryptocurrency. On Tuesday, the project announced that it had raised $550 million in token sales. Ethics experts have raised alarms about the cryptocurrency’s potential for influence peddling. As an example, some critics pointed to Justin Sun, the target of litigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission, and his public purchase of $75 million worth of WLFI.
Who’s involved in World Liberty Financial?
The roster of participants in the project is a mix of Trump family members, loyalists and crypto developers. The president's sons—Barron, Eric, and Donald Jr.—are World Liberty Financial’s “Web3 Ambassadors.” Steve Witkoff, a Trump loyalist and real estate magnate, as well as his two sons, Alex and Zach, are cofounders.
And two DeFi developers, Zak Folkman and Chase Herro, are also listed as cofounders. The pair were behind the crypto project Dough Finance, which suffered a $2 million hack in July.
Update, March 25, 2025: Added in new details from a press release as well as a comment from a World Liberty Financial spokesperson.
Update, March 26, 2025: Added in responses from spokesperson concerning launch date and competition against USDC and USDT.
