It is an “experiment into the convergence of politics, finance, and blockchain technology,” a crypto research firm says.
The Trump family has a range of business interests — including a crypto company with big financial ambitions.
The company, World Liberty Financial, has a lending market called WLFI Markets. It has applied for a national banking charter through its World Liberty Trust subsidiary. And it bills itself as a DeFi, or “decentralized finance,” ecosystem, which broadly means it seeks to remove middlemen from financial transactions.
World Liberty Financial was founded by President Donald Trump, his sons, the president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Witkoff’s sons. Its USD1 stablecoin, which aims to stay pegged to the U.S. dollar, is at the center of the Trump family’s crypto venture — as is its token WLFI, which was recently trading around 11 cents, a fraction of its peak around 33 cents since its September launch.
WLFI Markets lets users borrow and lend against digital assets using USD1. The app isn’t available everywhere in the U.S., including New York. But if it gains traction, it could boost the circulating supply of USD1 and, potentially, the interest income generated by the assets that back it.
As a nationally chartered bank, World Liberty Trust would move from the fringes of payments into the central plumbing. Most stablecoin issuers make money from the interest earned on the assets backing the coins, generally including U.S. Treasurys, but if it were to also be a bank it could offer, and charge for, a range of financial services. (Think payments, clearing, asset custody, and the like.)
While the company has obvious political associations, World Liberty Financial, the WLF Protocol and WLFI tokens are “not political,” per the company’s white paper. That document shows that an entity called DT Marks DEFI LLC received 22.5 billion WLFI tokens and a right to receive 75% of the project’s revenue. That entity is connected to undisclosed Trump family members and the president through a series of holding companies, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The company also owns a stake in ALT5 Sigma (ALTS) after exchanging $750 million in WLFI tokens for 1 million ALT5 shares and warrants to buy an additional 99 million shares. Eric Trump, the president’s younger son, is a director on ALT5’s board — though only in an “observer” position in order to comply with Nasdaq rules. Zach Witkoff, a co-founder of World Liberty, is chairman of ALT5. (WLFI also recently loaned ALT5 money to buy back shares; ALT5 has a stated goal of acquiring more WLFI tokens.)
The company has led to scrutiny for President Trump. Congressional Democrats in a November report said the president “leveraged his office to make himself a crypto billionaire.” More recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company sold a large stake to a foreign royal, which a Democratic senator has pledged to investigate.
“Neither President Trump nor Steve Witkoff had any involvement whatsoever in this transaction and have had no involvement in World Liberty Financial since taking office,” a company spokesperson said via email. “We made the deal in question because we strongly believe that it was what was best for our company as we continue to grow.”
Crypto research firm Arkham’s calls World Liberty Financial an “experiment into the convergence of politics, finance, and blockchain technology.”
