WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

Trump Family-Backed Crypto Project Is Dropping a New Token

The stablecoin, called USD1, is not tradable yet—but its value will be backed by U.S. government debt.

World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture launched by President Donald Trump and his sons last year, has a new stablecoin. The group launched the U.S. government debt-backed coin, called USD1, on March 4, but it is not currently tradable. When it is, it’ll be on the Ethereum network and the Binance Smart Chain blockchain. World Liberty said it will be audited by digital asset trust company BitGo. The announcement of the new token led scammers to fraudulently replicate the currency, leading Binance founder Changpeng Zhao to warn on X that “the official USD1 is not tradable yet.” Zhao added: “Please do not fall for the scams.” The token’s value will be underpinned by “short-term U.S. government Treasurys, U.S. dollar deposits and other cash equivalents,” the company said, according to The Wall Street Journal. Zach Witkoff, World Liberty Financial co-founder and son of Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff, was more positive in a statement. “USD1 provides what algorithmic and anonymous crypto projects cannot—access to the power of DeFi (decentralized finance) underpinned by the credibility and safeguards of the most respected names in traditional finance,” he said.