Zach Witkoff: No conflict of interest between Trump family and World Liberty Financial
USD1 growth outpaced USDT and broader stablecoin industry in 2026
World Liberty Financial (WLFI) CEO Zach Witkoff has dismissed allegations that the firm’s USD1 stablecoin is being used to funnel funds to the Trump family.
In an interview with CNBC on the 25th of August, Witkoff downplayed the alleged “Trump cronyism” and political interference, citing USD1’s organic traction and utility.
There’s over $4 billion of USD1 in circulation and over a billion dollars trades every single day in volume in USD1.
He added,
USD1 had $1.7 billion in volume in the trailing 24 hours, and that speaks to the use case of USD1; it speaks to customers actually using it. So I would completely dispute that notion.
WLFI is a Trump family-backed DeFi project. In fact, in late 2025, the Wall Street Journal alleged that Binance’s Changpeng Zhao (CZ) helped scale USD1 before being granted a presidential pardon.
Notably, Zach Witkoff is the son of the current U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff. As such, most critics have viewed the project with considerable skepticism. And Trump’s crypto windfall at the expense of retail traders has deepened this scrutiny.
Unfortunately, the perceived conflict of interest and alleged Trump corruption in the sector have derailed the CLARITY Act. Democrats withheld support for the crucial crypto bill due to limited ethics provisions.
Zach Witkoff doubles down on USD1 amid stablecoin boom
However, Zach Witkoff maintained that he doesn’t focus on the conflict-of-interest claims and charges. Instead, he insisted that he wants to drive utility to World Liberty Financial’s users.
That said, the firm received a conditional trust charter license last week from the OCC, joining other players such as Ripple and Circle. The approval allows the firm to custody its own reserves linked to issued stablecoins.
For Witkoff, the move would help WLFI “institutionalize its business.”
Overall, USD1 has seen relatively strong growth compared to the rest of the sector. On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, USD1’s market supply grew by +20% and hit $4B. In contrast, Tether’s USDT, the largest stablecoin, slipped 2% to $183B.
Overall, USD1 has outperformed the stablecoin sector despite growing scrutiny of Trump’s crypto empire by Democrats.
Final Summary
- World Liberty Financial CEO discredited conflicts of interest and alleged Trump influence in USD1 growth.
- The stablecoin outperformed Tether’s USDT in supply growth by +20% in 2026.
