(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump’s crypto project World Liberty Financial said it plans to launch a stablecoin redeemable one-for-one with the 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% backed by short-term US 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.
“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.
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 traveling 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 $230 billion.
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