World Liberty Financial
Decentralized finance protocol
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is a decentralized finance protocol developed by its namesake company. It was founded in 2024 by Zachary Folkman, Chase Herro, Alex Witkoff, Zach Witkoff, and Trump family members. It is a business venture of the Trump family.[1] The Trump family receives 75% of net proceeds when WLFI sells tokens, as well as gets a cut of stablecoin profits.[2] By December 2025, the Trumps had profited $1 billion on proceeds, while holding $3 billion worth of unsold tokens.[2]
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| |
| Denominations | |
|---|---|
| Symbol | WLFI |
| Code | WLFI |
| Development | |
| White paper | White paper |
| Initial release | September 16, 2024 |
| Latest release | September 1, 2025 |
| Development status | Active |
| Written in | Solidity (Ethereum), Rust (Solana) |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Developer | World Liberty Financial Inc. |
| Ledger | |
| Block explorer | Etherscan |
| Circulating supply | 24.67 billion WLFI (Sept 2025) |
| Supply limit | 100 billion WLFI |
| Website | |
| Website | worldlibertyfinancial |
The company has been subject of media coverage concerning potential conflicts of interest related to Donald Trump's involvement, including reports about business relationships with foreign entities and other partners.[3][4] One of World Liberty's few publicly known investors is Chinese-born billionaire Justin Sun; shortly after Trump took office in 2025, Sun invested $30 million into World Liberty and an SEC investigation into him was subsequently dropped.[5] In 2025, President Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, who had been convicted of anti-money-laundering compliance failures, after his company Binance had helped enrich World Liberty Financial.[5]
In 2025, a firm associated with the Abu Dhabi government purchased $2 billion worth of USD1 stablecoins from World Liberty and secretly bought a 49% stake in the company for half a billion dollars; shortly hereafter, the Trump administration approved a plan to give the UAE firm hundreds of thousands of advanced, scarce computer chips, despite national security concerns.[6][7] Legal experts have described the UAE deal as a potential violation of the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution.[7]
History
In September 2024, Trump announced that his sons would enter the cryptocurrency marketplace with a new venture called World Liberty Financial. In October, it announced its first initiative marketing a cryptocurrency called $WLFI. By the end of October 2024, the company had only sold $2.7 million worth of $WLFI, which abruptly changed and soared following Trump's victory in the 2024 United States presidential election.[3]
In 2025, Justin Sun acquired $WLFI tokens, reportedly for at least $75 million.[8] Sun was also named a World Liberty Financial advisor.[8] In February 2025, shortly after Trump took office as president for the second time, the Securities and Exchange Commission was reported to be backing off an investigation that it was conducting into Sun's companies.[8] The financial relationship between Trump and Sun raised potential conflicts of interest at that time.[8]
In March 2025, World Liberty announced it would launch USD1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by U.S. treasuries, dollars, and other cash equivalents.[4] Steve Witkoff later announced that stablecoin USD1 would be integrated into Tron, Sun's blockchain.[4]
In May 2025, MGX, an Abu Dhabi-state backed company led by Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the Abu Dhabi royal family and National Security Advisor of United Arab Emirates, announced it would use $2 billion worth of the USD1 stablecoin launched by World Liberty to finance a deal in crypto exchange Binance.[9][6] The deal was criticized by government ethics experts over potential conflicts of interest. Reuters reported that an anonymous cryptocurrency wallet holding approximately $2 billion worth of World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin received the funds between April 16 and 29, though the owner of the wallet could not be identified. Reuters also reported that Zach Witkoff and two other World Liberty co-founders met with Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao in Abu Dhabi.[4] Shortly after Sheik Tahnoun put money into the World Liberty Financial, the Trump administration approved a plan to allow one of Tahnoun's companies to receive hundreds of thousands of the world’s most advanced and scarce computer chips, despite national security concerns that the chips would end up in China.[6]
In January 2026, World Liberty Trust, a trust company owned by WLF and with Zach Witkoff as its president and chairman, applied for a national banking license in the U.S. Per The Wall Street Journal, the license "would allow World Liberty Trust to issue and safeguard USD1."[10]
Later that month, Pakistan signed an agreement with SC Financial Technologies, a company affiliated with WLF to explore using WLF’s USD1 stablecoin for cross-border payments. The partnership aimed to integrate the stablecoin into Pakistan's regulated digital payment system. This deal marked one of the first public collaborations between WLF and a sovereign nation.[11]
At the end of January 2026, it was reported that days before Trump's inauguration Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan interests had agreed to buy 49% of WLFI for half a billion dollars.[7][12] WLF did not disclose that Tahnoun had purchased the 49% share.[7] WLF also did not disclose to the public that two Tahnoun affiliates, Martin Edelman (general counsel of Tahnouun's company G42) and Peng Xiao (CEO of G42), had been put on the board of WLF.[7]
In March 2026, World Liberty Financial offered "guaranteed direct access" to members of its business development team and other executives in exchange for investors holding $5 million worth of the $WLFI token for a six-month period.[13]
USD1
USD1 is a stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial. It was launched in March 2025.[14]
In June 2025, World Liberty Financial formed a joint initiative with PancakeSwap, a decentralized finance protocol operated by Binance, to promote its stablecoin, USD1.[15] Hundreds of patriotic-sounding memecoins, such as Torch of Liberty and Eagles Landing, were created by users of Chinese origin to promote USD1.[15] PancakeSwap also started a "Liquidity Drive" program, offering prizes of up to $1 million to increase trading of USD1 on its platform.[15]
As of 2025, USD1 has a circulation supply of $2 billion and most of it is held by Binance, which allows World Liberty Financial to earn around $80 million per year by investing in government bonds and money market funds.[15]
Ownership
The company has been noted for its close connections to Donald Trump. A Trump business entity owns 60 percent of World Liberty, and is entitled to 75 percent of all revenue from coin sales. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are actively involved in the management of the company, and rely on three partners, Zachary Folkman, Chase Herro, and Zach Witkoff, to maintain daily operations. The Trump family and its affiliates were given 22.5 billion units of World Liberty's coins, $WLFI; the company says those who buy $WLFI will be able to vote on certain decisions like shareholders in a traditional company.[3]
UAE Royal Family owns a 49 percent stake, a deal signed prior to Trump’s second inauguration (Reported in a February 2026 New York Times article).
According to an analysis by The New Yorker in August 2025, the Trump family had gained $412.5 million from the venture.[16]
Management
Donald Trump's company title is "chief crypto advocate", his 19 year old son Barron Trump is listed as the project's "DeFi (decentralized finance) visionary", Ogle from Glue is listed as a key advisor, and Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. each have the title, "Web3 ambassador."[17][18][19] Steve Witkoff's son, Zach Witkoff, is a co-founder of the company. WLFI has been marketed as a portal for traders to invest in cryptocurrency and use those cryptocurrency assets for both borrowing and lending.[20][21]