World Liberty Financial (WLFI): political ties, USD1 stablecoin, and token risks
Cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly intertwined with companies from the traditional financial sector (TradFi) and even government organizations. One such crypto project with ties to the administration of current U.S. President Donald Trump is World Liberty Financial (WLFI).
What is World Liberty Financial (WLFI)?
World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is a decentralized financial protocol launched in September 2024 — two months before Trump was elected President of the United States.
Thanks to close political ties that drew massive attention from major investors, World Liberty Financial quickly rose to the top ranks of the Web3 industry after the official listing of its native token WLFI in September 2025.
By the end of October, World Liberty had sold WLFI tokens worth $2.7 million to accredited investors in a private funding round. One of the investors was Justin Sun, founder of one of the largest blockchain projects in the industry, TRON.
According to CBS News, after Trump's election, Justin Sun invested $30 million in World Liberty Financial (WLFI), becoming the project's largest investor. Following this, the SEC dropped its lawsuit against the TRON founder. After Trump's inauguration, Sun invested another $45 million in the project.
World Liberty Financial is also one of the few projects to have filed Form D with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a private securities sale under Rule 506.
An investigation by The New York Times revealed that the platform is run by Trump's three sons, and that Trump's company owns 60% of World Liberty, the organization behind the project.
Another co-founder of World Liberty Financial is Zach Witkoff, the son of well-known entrepreneur Steve Witkoff, who since 2025 has served as the U.S. Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs in the Middle East.
World Liberty Financial (WLFI) ecosystem
A key element of the ecosystem is the World Liberty Financial USD (USD1) stablecoin, launched in March 2025. It is backed by fiat currency and pegged to the U.S. dollar. A month after its launch, the government of Abu Dhabi invested $2 billion in USD1.
According to co-founder Zach Witkoff, USD1 will be used to finalize a deal between MGX, a UAE investment company linked to the Abu Dhabi government, and Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange.
As of September 2025, the market capitalization of the World Liberty Financial USD stablecoin is $2.6 billion, placing USD1 among the top five stablecoins on the crypto market, behind Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), Ethena USDe (USDe), and Dai (DAI).
However, World Liberty Financial USD accounts for less than 1% of the overall stablecoin market, which, according to CoinMarketCap data as of September 2025, exceeds $297 billion.
Experts believe that USD1 will become an important part of the global stablecoin market, playing a significant role in cross-border payments and DeFi operations.
World Liberty Financial (WLFI) token
In September 2025, the native token of World Liberty Financial was listed on major centralized and decentralized exchanges under the ticker WLFI. WLFI is a governance token that grants holders voting rights on ecosystem improvement proposals, as well as on the governance and integration of the USD1 stablecoin.
As of September 2025, WLFI exists on three blockchains:
This indicates that the World Liberty Financial team aims to cover the most in-demand blockchain platforms in the crypto sector to ensure strong growth prospects.
On its first day of trading, WLFI entered the top 30 cryptocurrencies by market cap, peaking at $7.93 billion. However, shortly after listing, its price began to fall. At the time of writing, WLFI trades at $0.18, nearly 20% below its listing price. At its all-time high (ATH), recorded on listing day, WLFI reached $0.46.
Amid the WLFI crash, the World Liberty Financial team blacklisted addresses belonging to key investor Justin Sun, which had unlocked 595 million tokens worth around $107 million at the time. This came after Sun conducted several transactions, one of which exceeded $9 million. Sun claimed the transactions were not related to buying or selling and could not have affected the market.
According to CoinMarketCap analytics, WLFI's price decline may be linked to structural risks and uncertainty over future token unlocks. Currently, only about a quarter of the 100 billion WLFI tokens are unlocked.
WLFI has no fixed vesting schedule. The number of tokens unlocked will depend on community voting results. Excessive token issuance could create strong downward pressure on price, especially during a market downturn.
Conclusion
Although WLFI has governance functions, it lacks real utility: investors can only trade it on exchanges or use it for liquidity provision on DEXs.
To address this, the World Liberty Financial team is launching an initiative called the WLFI Club, aimed at improving the token's ecosystem and expanding its use cases. For example, in addition to governance, WLFI Club participants will have access to staking for extra income and yield farming opportunities.