US President Donald Trump has a long list of crypto ventures, which would have profited around $1 billion by October 2025. DeFi project called World Liberty Financial could be the largest.
The platform, which President Trump co-founded with his three sons, according to its website, aims to make the financial sector “trustworthy, open and built for how the world works today.”
World Liberty Financial was announced in August 2024 by President Trump’s son Eric. 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.
Details about how the project works are still somewhat scarce. Let’s take a look at what we know so far.
An Ethereum-based DeFi project
World Liberty Financial’s platform is built using the Aave protocol and has not been released as of October 2025, but the project says it plans to “keep the dollar digital” and “provide loans to institutions and ordinary users.”
DeFi – short for decentralized finance – is the sphere of the crypto industry that aims to replace traditional banking. DeFi projects, financial platforms that operate without third-party intermediaries, are usually apps built using Ethereumthe blockchain behind the second largest cryptocurrency, ETH.
World Liberty Financial also runs on Ethereum.
It’s worth noting that while there are many DeFi apps, the space is still a very experimental part of the crypto industry and plagued by hacks and scams.
Those in the DeFi world typically say they want to streamline a slow and expensive legacy banking system, and World Liberty Financial has thus far sold itself as the ultimate DeFi project: a lending and lending platform that will “unlock financial access for all, by replacing the boundaries of traditional banking with an open, on-chain infrastructure, creating a fairer system – where opportunity isn’t defined by location, status.” or consent.’
What can you do with World Liberty Financial?
While you can’t take out loans using the platform yet, you can buy the native token, WLFI, which has a market cap of $3.56 billion as of October 2025, making it the 43rd largest cryptocurrency in existence, according to CoinGecko data. WLFI is available on top exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase and OKX.
The project also has its own stablecoin, USD1, running Ethereum And BNB chainwhich one Declutter first unveiled in October 2024. The stablecoin is also available on major US exchanges such as Coin base And Cracking.
Stable coins are digital tokens pegged to the value of fiat currencies – in the case of USD1, the US dollar. The assets are an important part of the DeFi economy (and the broader crypto economy) because traders use them to quickly enter and exit digital asset transactions. Instead of using dollars on traditional bank rails, digital tokens speed up the crypto trading process.
The involvement of the Trump family
President Trump is listed on World Liberty Financial’s website as “co-founder emeritus,” meaning he is no longer involved with the project since taking office in January. His close friend and White House Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is also listed as “co-founder emeritus.”
Still, the Trump and Witkoff families likely made a lot of money from the project: Steve Witkoff’s son, Zach, and the president’s three sons, Eric, Donald Jr. and Barron, are all still actively involved with World Liberty Financial.
WLFI’s market cap is more than two and a half times larger than that of the meme coin President Trump launched before his inauguration, Official Trump (TRUMP). The Trump family owns a significant portion of the WLFI offering; their net worth grew by more than $6 billion when the tokens started trading in September.
Conflict of interest concerns
The Trump family’s involvement in WLFI has proven controversial. Democratic lawmakers have often criticized the project — and the president’s other crypto ventures. In May 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren took aim at a $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund MGX in leading crypto exchange Binance, which used the USD1 token, calling it “shady”.
Prominent Democrats in the House of Representatives have also asked the Treasury Department to grant access to all suspicious activity reports, or SARs, on Trump’s digital asset projects — including World Liberty Financial.
Trump has repeatedly brushed aside concerns about his family’s involvement in crypto ventures, including World Liberty Financial, claiming he “hasn’t looked at the bottom line.”
