rewrite this title What Is World Liberty Financial? The Trump Family DeFi Project Explained – Decrypt

U.S. President Donald Trump has a long list of crypto ventures, profiting to the tune of some $1.4 billion as of January 2026. Of them, a DeFi project dubbed World Liberty Financial might be the biggest.

The platform, which President Trump co-founded, according to its website, along with his three sons, wants to make finance “reliable, open, and made for how the world works today.”

World Liberty Financial was announced by President Trump’s son Eric in August 2024. It is led by DeFi builders Chase Herro and Zak Folkman, along with other members of the Trump family and Zach Witkoff—son of longtime Trump ally Steve Witkoff.

An Ethereum-based DeFi project

Built atop multiple chains including Ethereum, Arbitrum and Berachain, World Liberty Financial says it plans to “keep the dollar digital” and provide “loans for institutions and everyday users.”

DeFi—short for decentralized finance—is the sphere of the crypto industry that wants to replace traditional banking. DeFi projects, financial platforms that operate without third-party intermediaries, are usually apps built using Ethereum, the blockchain behind the second biggest cryptocurrency, ETH.

The project’s lending and borrowing platform World Liberty Markets launched in January 2026, promising to offer users “access to transparent, high-performance liquidity markets” powered by DeFi yield protocol Dolomite.

It’s worth noting that while there are plenty of DeFi apps, the space is still a highly experimental part of the crypto industry and has been plagued by hacks and scams.

Those in the DeFi space typically say they want to streamline a slow and expensive legacy banking system, and World Liberty Financial so far has sold itself as the quintessential DeFi project: A borrowing and lending platform that will “unlock financial access for all, by replacing the limits of traditional banking with open, on-chain infrastructure, creating a fairer system—where opportunity isn’t defined by location, status, or permission.”

What can you do with World Liberty Financial?

While you can’t yet take loans out using the platform, you can buy its native token, WLFI, which has a market cap of $3.05 billion as of February 2026, making it the 34th biggest cryptocurrency in existence, per CoinGecko data. WLFI is available on crypto exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, and OKX.

The project also has its own stablecoin, USD1, which Decrypt first revealed in October 2024. The stablecoin runs on Ethereum and BNB Chain, Solana, Tron and Plume Network, and is available on American exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken.

Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged to the value of fiat currencies—in USD1’s case, the U.S. dollar. The assets are a key part of the DeFi economy (and the wider crypto economy) because traders use them to swiftly enter and exit digital asset transactions. Instead of using dollars on traditional banking rails, digital tokens accelerate the crypto trading process.

In January 2026, World Liberty Financial filed an application with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to form a national trust bank. The proposal would place its USD1 stablecoin under direct federal supervision, rather than the current structure designed for state-licensed entities.

Under the proposal, an entity named as World Liberty Trust Company would take over the issuance and redemption of USD1, as well as offering conversion and custody services from fiat and other stablecoins, and reserve management for the assets backing outstanding USD1.

The Trump family’s involvement

President Trump is listed as “co-founder emeritus” on the World Liberty Financial website, meaning he is no longer involved in the project since taking office in January. His close friend and the White House’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is also listed as a “co-founder emeritus.”

Still, the Trump and Witkoff families have likely made a lot of money from the project: Steve Witkoff’s son, Zach, is the CEO, and the president’s three sons, Eric, Donald Jr., and Barron, are listed as co-founders on the project’s website. The firm asserts that Trump and his family members do not hold any role as “director, officer or employee” of the firm.

WLFI’s market cap is more than twice that of the meme coin President Trump launched ahead of his inauguration, Official Trump (TRUMP). The Trump family owns a significant portion of the WLFI supply; their net worth grew by over $6 billion when the tokens started trading in September 2025.

Conflict of interest concerns

The Trump family’s involvement in WLFI has proved contentious. Democratic lawmakers have frequently criticized the project—and the president’s other crypto ventures.

In May 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) took aim at a $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund MGX into leading crypto exchange Binance, which used the USD1 token, calling it “shady.”

Prominent House Democrats have also asked the Treasury to provide access to all suspicious activity reports, or SARs, on Trump’s digital asset projects—including World Liberty Financial.

In February 2026, a Wall Street Journal report revealed that Aryam Investment 1, a UAE firm controlled by ‘Spy Sheikh’ Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, purchased a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million, days before Trump’s inauguration.

According to the WSJ’s reporting, some $187 million was directed to Trump family entities and $31 million to entities affiliated with Steve Witkoff’s family under the deal.

Months later, the Trump administration approved export licenses on advanced AI chips to the UAE—licenses previously blocked by the Biden administration over fears the technology could be diverted to China.

Denounced by Warren as “corruption, plain and simple,” news of the deal prompted Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) to warn of “potentially criminal conduct” that could result in jail time for those who had “traded government favors for cash.”

Days later, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA-17) formally launched an investigation into the deal, demanding that World Liberty Financial hand over documents relating to its dealings with Aryam Investment 1, along with payment flows, due diligence on UAE-linked entities, internal conflict-of-interest safeguards, and communications relating to export controls or the later pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao.

Trump has repeatedly brushed aside concerns over his family’s involvement with crypto ventures including World Liberty Financial, claiming he “hasn’t looked” at the profits.

This article was written in October 2025 and updated in February 2026.