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President Donald Trump’s crypto project World Liberty Financial said it plans to launch a stablecoin redeemable one-for-one with the United States dollar, an announcement that comes as his administration throws its support behind the digital tokens that underpin most crypto transactions.

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The USD1 token will be 100 per cent backed by short-term U.S. Treasuries, dollar deposits and other cash equivalents, the Trump-backed decentralized-finance, or DeFi, firm said in a statement Tuesday. BitGo Inc. will serve as custodian and the USD1 tokens will be initially minted on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain blockchains. No timetable was disclosed.

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“USD1 provides what algorithmic and anonymous crypto projects cannot — access to the power of DeFi underpinned by the credibility and safeguards of the most respected names in traditional finance,” Zach Witkoff, a co-founder of World Liberty, said in the statement. “We’re offering a digital dollar stablecoin that sovereign investors and major institutions can confidently integrate into their strategies for seamless, secure cross-border transactions.”

World Liberty had been engaged in discussions about doing business with crypto exchange Binance Holdings Ltd., Bloomberg News reported earlier this month. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to anti-money laundering failures that allowed Binance to be used by criminal groups and terrorist organizations, including Hamas.

The talks included the possibility of Binance developing a stablecoin with World Liberty. Zhao later said on X that he and the exchange “have no business deals” with World Liberty or its principals. Zhao did not reply to a request for comment. Binance declined to comment.

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The Trump administration and Congress are both pushing to cement the growing importance of stablecoins, the digital tokens that are supposed to maintain a steady value with backing from traditional assets. Representatives for World Liberty did not respond to requests for additional comment.

Two bills travelling through the House and Senate are designed to give stablecoins a bigger role in the global payments infrastructure, with vocal support from Trump. The interest from Washington has helped encourage the steady flow of new money into the sector — even as other parts of the cryptocurrency industry have struggled — bringing the total value of stablecoins to more than US$230 billion.

Running a stablecoin business has turned into a profitable endeavour in recent years, at least for those who attain enough market share. Rising interest rates on Treasury bills helped Tether Holdings SA, the largest stablecoin issuer with US$144 billion in circulation, to garner around US$13 billion in profit last year.

Stablecoins have long drawn attention, and criticism, for the ways in which they have made it easier for criminals to move money across national borders. The current debate has focused on how the tokens could be vulnerable to the kind of bank runs that paralyzed the financial system during past financial crises, all of which might be amplified if the proposed legislation allows the industry to grow.

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Skeptics have also raised concerns about Trump’s ties to the space and his company’s involvement with Binance. At a Senate hearing about one of the proposed bills earlier this month, top Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren pointed to Binance’s checkered legal past as evidence of why such rules are needed.

“We should be standing up to this kind of naked corruption, not trying to figure out how to build a super highway so it can take off even faster, bigger, and better,” Warren said at the hearing.

World Liberty Financial was introduced in September as a DeFi project, meaning one that provides financial services like lending and trading crypto without any intermediaries, though it has yet to offer such services.

The Trump family, including the president and his sons Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, have been actively promoting the project through social media and public appearances. The project’s co-founders include Steve Witkoff, a close ally of Trump’s who is now the president’s envoy to the Middle East, and Witkoff’s son Zach.

BitGo chief executive Mike Belshe hosted a fundraiser in July for Trump’s presidential campaign that was headlined by the Republican nominee’s running mate, JD Vance.

—With assistance from David Pan.

Bloomberg.com

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