Amid ongoing controversies surrounding his administration, Donald Trump has launched a new cryptocurrency called USD1 through his company, World Liberty Financial. This stablecoin, which is tied to the U.S. dollar, is already live on the Ethereum and Binance blockchains—decentralized systems that track digital currency.
The announcement was anything but straightforward. Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao shared a link to the coin with his 10 million followers on X, but warned that the coin wasn’t yet tradable and urging caution against potential scams.
Only after the initial buzz did Trump’s company officially confirm the launch. “We’re offering a digital dollar stablecoin that sovereign investors and major institutions can confidently integrate,” said Zach Witkoff, one of the project’s co-founders. This new coin is positioned to target institutional investors, adding another layer to Trump’s expanding crypto ventures, Fortune reports.
World Liberty Financial confirmed that USD1 is backed by Treasury bills, cash, and other stable assets, with BitGo, a crypto custodian, managing the reserves. The company also stated that holders of USD1 won’t receive any interest from the coin, signaling a straightforward design with no “complex yield-generating mechanisms.”
Trump’s crypto company has already raised a substantial amount of money. The company has sold $WLFI tokens, which allow users to vote on governance proposals for the yet-to-be-launched platform. The company’s vague plans for its decentralized finance (DeFi) platform have raised concerns about its true intentions, especially since it has yet to provide details about how its products will function.
The Trump family is heavily involved in the project, with his sons—Barron, Eric, and Donald Jr.—acting as “Web3 Ambassadors” for World Liberty Financial. Alongside them are Steve Witkoff, a Trump ally, and two DeFi developers, Zak Folkman and Chase Herro, who have previously been involved in the failed crypto project Dough Finance, according to Fortune.
The timing of the USD1 launch is notable, as it comes amid another scandal involving Trump’s administration. A recent bombshell report revealed that top U.S. officials accidentally shared classified military information with a journalist from The Atlantic.
Jeffery Goldberg, The Atlantic editor, revealed shocking details about being accidentally added to a secret group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal by U.S. officials. In that chat were high-ranking intelligence and military officials discussing sensitive war plans, including strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
Goldberg published a report on Monday about the incident, where he detailed seeing top-secret information about weapons systems, human targets, and other military plans. Although Goldberg did not share this classified information in his report, he made it clear that he felt an obligation to take national security seriously. “I get the defensive reaction,” Goldberg said in an interview with The Bulwark on Tuesday. “But my obligation, I feel, is to the idea that we take national security information seriously.”
While this scandal plays out, Trump continues with his crypto project. Whether USD1 will succeed in a crowded crypto market remains to be seen, but the connections to powerful figures and the growing amounts of money involved suggest that the Trump family’s crypto enterprise will have a significant impact on the industry.
