WLFI CEO Defends USD1 Amid Conflict-of-Interest Questions
World Liberty Financial CEO Zach Witkoff defended the firm's stablecoin USD1 on CNBC, insisting that people use it daily despite concerns about conflicts of interest involving the Trump family. Witkoff, whose father is President Trump's Middle East envoy, highlighted USD1's $4 billion circulating supply and the company's recent preliminary conditional banking charter. However, CNBC's Joe Kernen pressed him on whether foreign entities parking money in USD1 could benefit the Trump family, which owns about 38% of the company. A December Wall Street Journal report revealed that a Trump-controlled entity takes 75% of net proceeds from WLFI token sales and a cut of stablecoin profits, and that Abu Dhabi's government purchased $2 billion of USD1, with the UAE also buying a 49% stake in WLFI for $500 million. The token's price has dropped 85% since its September 2025 launch, and most volume flows through offshore exchanges, with Binance alone accounting for 49.45% of volume. WLFI recently partnered with Canton Network to issue USD1 on its blockchain.
OCC approves Trump family crypto bank amid corruption allegations tied to UAE capital
The United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, has granted conditional approval for World Liberty Financial to establish a national trust bank under the name World Liberty Trust Company, National Association, amid conflict-of-interest allegations from members of Congress. The company proposes issuing a stablecoin backed by US dollars and accepting deposits of digital assets related to its USD1 token. President Donald Trump and his three sons are associated with the company, and a Trump family entity holds a 38% stake in the company's equity interests, while OCC chief Jonathan Gould was nominated by Trump in 2025. Senator Elizabeth Warren said she has introduced the Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act to stop corruption of this kind and called for an investigation into World Liberty's ties to foreign entities. Reports indicate that an Abu Dhabi investment firm backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty in January 2025 for 500 million dollars, and the UAE entity MGX used the USD1 stablecoin in a 2 billion dollar investment in the crypto exchange Binance, after which Trump later pardoned former CEO Changpeng Zhao.
Trump-backed World Liberty Financial partners with Hong Kong AI venture WorldClaw
President Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial is collaborating with Hong Kong-based WorldClaw, a venture offering access to AI models developed by Chinese companies the U.S. administration has flagged for national security concerns. A Reuters review found that 43 of the 90 models available through WorldClaw's website, or nearly half, were developed by Alibaba, Baidu, Z.ai and other Chinese technology companies, while the platform also offers dozens of models from U.S. firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic. WorldClaw accepts World Liberty's crypto tokens as payment, and the Trump family, through its 38% ownership stake in World Liberty, earns revenue from the use of its USD1 stablecoin, including when WorldClaw users elect it as their mode of payment. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said there are no conflicts of interest in the relationship, while World Liberty spokesman David Wachsman called WorldClaw an independent company and noted that major U.S. firms offer AI from Chinese as well as American tech companies. The Trump family's earnings from World Liberty token sales total more than $1.4 billion, the largest piece of the $2.3 billion the family has made from crypto, Reuters reported in June.
Businessman behind 100 million dollar WLFI purchase arrested in money laundering case
Gouren “Bobby” Zhou, the businessman behind the 100 million dollar purchase of World Liberty Financial governance tokens through Aqua 1, was arrested in England in 2021 on suspicion of money laundering and remains linked to an ongoing investigation, according to The New York Times. Zhou has not been charged, but English court documents state he collaborated with five others in a money laundering operation dating back to 2019. Two of his employees have been charged and one defendant has pleaded guilty, while a trial is scheduled for 2028. The source of the 100 million dollars remains unclear, and under World Liberty’s revenue-sharing agreement, up to 75 million dollars was allocated to companies controlled by Trump and his sons, as well as the family of Zach Witkoff, co-founder of World Liberty, whose father is Steve Witkoff, a special envoy in the Trump administration.
CLARITY Act Could Allow Trump to Defer Millions in Crypto Taxes
An ethics provision in the CLARITY Act could allow President Donald Trump to defer capital gains taxes on divestments from crypto businesses, potentially saving millions of dollars. The undisclosed ethics appendix requires Trump to divest from crypto ventures but also permits such tax deferrals. His 2025 financial disclosure reports 1.4 billion dollars in crypto-related income over the past year, including roughly 635 million dollars from licensing the Official Trump meme coin, about 588 million dollars from World Liberty Financial, and 197 million dollars from the sale of a stake in a stablecoin venture. Democratic concerns over Trump's crypto conflicts of interest are a major hurdle for the market structure bill, and the tax deferral benefit could become an additional point of contention.
Trump Family-Backed WLFI Token Falls Over 7% as Broader Crypto Market Rallies
WLFI, the governance token of World Liberty Financial, declined over 7% in July while the total cryptocurrency market capitalization increased by 6.8%. The drop followed disclosures that President Donald Trump earned more than $580 million from the decentralized finance platform, which lists his sons as co-founders. WLFI went live for trading in September 2025 and is now down 88% from its all-time high, with roughly $6 billion in investor wealth wiped out since the coin peaked at $0.46. AirdropAlert founder Morten Christensen, who holds WLFI, told Benzinga that four-fifths of his holdings are locked in a two-year vesting period and that he sees little value in them due to skepticism about the project's potential.
zerohash integrates USD1 and WLFI, enabling access for its bank, brokerage, and fintech clients
zerohash announced support for World Liberty Financial's USD1 stablecoin and WLFI token across its regulated digital asset infrastructure. The integration allows banks, brokerages, fintechs, and payment providers powered by zerohash to access USD1 and WLFI through a single API alongside more than 100 supported digital assets. USD1 is now part of zerohash's stablecoin onchain money movement and payments stack, with interoperability across over 18 stablecoins on more than 20 chains. USD1, which has over $4.5 billion in circulating supply, is fully backed by U.S. Treasuries, dollar deposits, and other cash equivalents and is redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars. zerohash handles the underlying liquidity, compliance, custody, and settlement infrastructure, enabling partners to offer these assets within a regulated framework.
Crypto Holdings by US Politicians Become a Symbol of National Strategy
In the United States, crypto asset holdings are now intertwined with political donations, regulatory legislation, and national strategy, reaching a stage where they are driving politics itself. While lawmakers in Congress who directly hold crypto assets are still a minority, figures close to policy design such as President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Cynthia Lummis, and Ted Cruz hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and others. Trump generates revenue from crypto businesses through affiliated companies and World Liberty Financial, while Vance positions Bitcoin as a strategic asset for competitiveness against China. This situation creates conflict-of-interest risks, but on the other hand, politicians who actually hold assets may find it easier to understand the market and technology. The crypto industry is increasingly supporting pro-crypto candidates through campaign funding and lobbying, and policies such as the GENIUS Act and a strategic Bitcoin reserve are part of a broader trend of the US incorporating digital assets into its national strategy.