News linked to both this project and an event.
According to an official announcement, Gate has launched a limited-time USD1 staking program offering high yields. During the campaign period, users holding USD1 in their asset accounts (minimum holding requirement: 1 USD1) can earn up to 20% annualized yield. The annualized yield rate is adjusted daily based on the remaining monthly reward budget and the platform’s total effective USD1 holdings. The updated annualized yield rate is published daily around 14:00 (UTC+8). The system takes hourly snapshots of users’ USD1 balances to calculate the average holding amount for yield calculation. Yields are distributed to users’ asset accounts the following day. According to the announcement, USD1 is a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial. It is fully collateralized by U.S. Treasury bills and cash equivalents, designed to maintain a stable 1:1 peg with the U.S. dollar. As a regulated, reserve-backed asset, USD1 delivers the same price stability as traditional cash—on-chain and in digital form.
WLFI treasury company AI Financial Corporation has disclosed that the company currently holds WLFI tokens worth approximately $380 million, of which about half can be used for collateral, staking, or lending transactions.According to the Form 8-K filed today, 3,321,690,994 WLFI (worth approximately $180 million) are immediately available, and these tokens are expected to be fully transferable by August 12, 2026. The remaining 3,583,585,650 WLFI are subject to a 12-month contractual lock-up and will also unlock on the same date. The above valuations are based on a WLFI price of $0.055 (as of 19:00 Eastern Time Monday).CEO Tony Isaac emphasized that the availability of usable tokens does not mean the company intends to sell them; WLFI is viewed as a strategic asset to optimize the balance sheet and support the company's liquidity. He stated that the availability of these tokens helps alleviate the going concern uncertainty disclosed in the recent Form 10-Q, and the company expects to have sufficient funds to maintain operations and fulfill its obligations for at least the next 12 months.AI Financial describes itself as a fintech company, providing blockchain-based payment, trading, and settlement infrastructure with cumulative transaction volume exceeding $8 billion. The company has a market capitalization of approximately $94.91 million, and its stock price has fallen 93% over the past year to $0.68, with liquidity challenges persisting. (Investing)
World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a crypto project backed by the Trump family, stated that in light of recent updates to sanctions measures, the platform will continue to enforce risk-based sanctions compliance control mechanisms to fulfill legal and regulatory obligations in relevant jurisdictions.WLFI noted that transactions involving sanctioned individuals, entities, or related wallet addresses may be subject to enhanced scrutiny, rejection, restrictions, or other compliance measures. The platform reminds users that when transferring digital assets, they should ensure that the source of funds and original wallet addresses are not associated with sanctioned parties or prohibited activities.WLFI stated that if user transactions or accounts are affected during the compliance review process, its support team will assist users in completing the subsequent processing steps.
Bybit has officially launched its new “Hold USD1 to Earn Tokens” campaign. Users only need to complete Level 1 KYC verification and hold at least 1 USD1 in their Bybit account to share daily WLFI rewards—no subscription or lock-up required; rewards are earned simply by holding. The campaign begins on May 19, 2026, at 10:00 UTC. During the campaign period, users can earn up to a 20% annualized return and compete for a total reward pool of up to 45,000,000 WLFI—climbing the USD1 Holding Leaderboard. USD1 is a regulated stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial, fully backed 1:1 by short-term U.S. Treasury securities and cash equivalents, and strictly pegged to the U.S. dollar. WLFI is the governance token of the World Liberty Financial ecosystem, enabling holders to participate in protocol governance and influence the ecosystem’s strategic direction. In this campaign, WLFI rewards will be distributed daily to USD1 holders on the Bybit platform. During the campaign, the system will take a snapshot of each user’s eligible USD1 balance once every hour—24 snapshots per day. WLFI rewards are expected to be credited to users’ main account funding wallets by approximately 06:00 UTC the following day.
According to The Block, WLFI treasury company AI Financial released its financial results for the quarter ended March 28, 2026, reporting a net loss of $271.5 million, compared to a net loss of $2.4 million in the same period last year; the company stated that its financial condition raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern over the next year. Revenue for the same period totaled $4.7 million, entirely derived from its crypto payment fintech business. AI Financial holds 7.28 billion WLFI tokens, with a fair value of approximately $706 million—markedly down from over $1 billion at the end of December 2025—and recognized an unrealized loss of $348.3 million. The company also noted that certain WLFI tokens are subject to lock-up restrictions, and its liquidity improvement, revenue growth, and ability to secure future financing will impact its continued operations.
TownSquare, an infrastructure platform focused on institutional yield and cross-chain lending brokerage services, has announced a $100 million USD1 token liquidity program—a strategic initiative designed to bring institutional-grade and cross-chain yield opportunities to a broader user base via World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin and institutional yield strategies. Previously, TownSquare collaborated with the World Liberty Financial DeFi team to integrate the USD1 token onto Monad, a high-performance EVM-compatible chain, and received official incentives from the Monad Foundation. The team stated that this new liquidity program marks TownSquare’s continued commitment to expanding DeFi’s real-world applicability and delivering institutional strategy yields to more assets. Currently, the project’s official website has launched its cross-chain lending functionality, while its yield vault product is listed as “Coming Soon.” According to official information, the project has previously completed a funding round backed by Monad, a16z, Aptos, Solana Bonk, and other U.S. and European angel investors and VCs. The founding team includes alumni from Coinbase, Meta, Accenture, and market-making firms. Details about the project’s next funding round have not yet been disclosed.
According to The Block, Lee Reiners—a lecturer in law at Duke University and former examiner at the New York Federal Reserve—published a post on May 8 stating that WLFI, the governance token issued by the DeFi project World Liberty Financial—which is closely associated with the Trump family—may constitute an unregistered security. Reiners cited the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) recently released token classification framework, arguing that WLFI is not a “pure digital commodity” and therefore falls under SEC regulatory scrutiny. He contends that WLFI was publicly presold—approximately 25 billion tokens—prior to the protocol’s launch and was marketed leveraging the Trump family’s brand, leading buyers to reasonably expect profits—a key element of the SEC’s “Howey Test” for determining whether an asset qualifies as a security. Regarding decentralization claims, Reiners referenced litigation filed by Justin Sun, noting that World Liberty unilaterally froze Sun’s tokens and revoked his governance rights—revealing a high degree of centralized control. Additionally, he highlighted clear conflicts of interest: the project borrowed $75 million in stablecoins from the Dolomite protocol, using 5 billion WLFI tokens as collateral; notably, a co-founder of Dolomite also serves as an advisor to World Liberty, and part of the borrowed stablecoins flowed directly to World Liberty itself.
Duke University law lecturer Lee Reiners stated that World Liberty Financial, a project associated with the Trump family, may have its governance token WLFI classified as an unregistered security.He pointed out that although the project defines WLFI as a governance token, its issuance method, marketing approach, and investors' expectation of profits align with the criteria of the "Howey Test" used by the SEC to determine securities.Furthermore, the large-scale pre-sale of WLFI before the protocol's official launch, along with its promotion leveraging the Trump brand, is also seen as reinforcing its "investment-type" characteristics.
U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren posted a comment on X regarding the recent controversies surrounding World Liberty Financial (WLFI). She stated, “While this crypto project backed by the Trump family—WLFI—is quietly cashing out, ordinary investors are left stranded.” Warren shared Bloomberg’s recent report on WLFI’s fund flows, which revealed that most of the proceeds raised through fundraising and private token sales have flowed to entities affiliated with the project’s founders. The project team sets governance rules, controls token issuance, and captures revenues—while investors have virtually no exit options.
Odaily, World Liberty Financial co-founder Zach Witkoff appeared on Fox Business to discuss the company's latest breakthroughs in AI and decentralized finance. Witkoff pointed out that WorldClaw is a key piece of the puzzle in realizing the Agent economy vision. WorldRouter, as an AI model aggregation platform, supports access to over 300 mainstream AI models—including GPT-5.5, Claude Opus 4.7, and Gemini 3.1 Pro—via a single account, with pricing 30% lower than official channels. WorldClaw AgentOS integrates the native stablecoin USD1 for instant and transparent settlement. Users can stake WLFI tokens to obtain AI credit packages and unlock whitelist eligibility. The project has the backing of the Trump family, aiming to establish the United States as the global hub for crypto and AI.
According to The Block, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand stated clearly on Wednesday at the Consensus Miami conference that she would not support the Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act unless it includes an ethics provision. She emphasized that members of Congress, the President, the Vice President, and senior executive branch officials must not profit from the industry by virtue of their insider status, bluntly declaring, “Without this provision, corruption will destroy this industry.” Previously, before the presidential inauguration, both Donald Trump and his wife launched meme coins. Their family-led DeFi and stablecoin project, World Liberty Financial, has also sparked widespread controversy. Bloomberg estimates that Trump has already earned at least $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency-related businesses.
The World Liberty Financial “Early Supporter and Founding Team Token Unlock Proposal” has passed with approximately 99.9% approval. Under the proposal, roughly 17.04 billion WLFI tokens allocated to early supporters will follow a “2-year cliff + 2-year linear vesting” schedule. Approximately 45.24 billion tokens allocated to founders, team members, advisors, and partners may opt for a “10% burn + 2-year cliff + 3-year linear vesting” schedule, with full release completed over up to five years; those declining the new schedule will retain indefinite lock-up and governance voting rights.
According to an official announcement, WorldClaw has partnered with World Liberty Fi to launch WorldRouter, enabling users to access over 300 AI models through a single account—at prices approximately 30% lower than the public list prices set by the respective model providers. WorldClaw states that this product serves as the first entry point to its AgentOS. As introduced, AgentOS is built on BNB Chain, Solana, and Tempo, and supports settlement in USD1. The platform has also unveiled a tiered program, including earning AI credits, WorldClaw Points, and other benefits through either spending USD1 or staking WLFI tokens.
A countersuit filed by World Liberty Financial has been submitted to a Florida state court, accusing Justin Sun of defamation and claiming he launched a "systematic pressure campaign" against the project. The case stems from a long-standing dispute between the two parties over token freezes and fund control. World Liberty Financial stated that Justin Sun's previous public accusations and related statements on social media constitute defamation. Meanwhile, Sun had previously filed a lawsuit accusing the project of illegally freezing approximately $240 million worth of his token assets. (Fortune)
World Liberty Financial (WLFI) has filed a defamation lawsuit against Justin Sun. WLFI alleges that Blue Anthem—a company affiliated with Sun—purchased $WLFI tokens in November 2024 and immediately engaged in prohibited activities, including transferring tokens to Binance. After WLFI froze the relevant tokens in accordance with its sales terms, Sun did not seek a good-faith resolution; instead, he orchestrated a coordinated smear campaign—hiring influencers, deploying bots, and disseminating false information to over 4 million followers, falsely labeling WLFI’s governance as a “scam” and accusing it of containing a “backdoor,” with the intent of driving the token price “to rock bottom.” WLFI states that the token freeze functionality was explicitly disclosed in its sales terms, that its governance mechanism is transparent and community-driven, and that it will pursue legal action against Sun.
According to the official announcement, Binance has now completed the integration of USDC on the Starknet network and World Liberty Financial USD (USD1) on the AB chain, and deposits and withdrawals are now available.
World Liberty Financial has initiated a token unlocking governance proposal vote, involving 62,282,252,205 locked WLFI tokens. According to the proposal, if passed, the relevant tokens will not enter the market for at least two years.The proposal indicates that up to 45.2 billion WLFI held by the founding team, advisors, and partners will be subject to a 2-year lock-up followed by a 3-year linear unlock, along with a maximum burn of approximately 4.5 billion tokens. Meanwhile, approximately 17 billion locked tokens held by early supporters are proposed to be converted to a 2-year lock-up followed by a 2-year linear unlock. The voting period for this proposal is 7 days, with a quorum threshold of 1 billion WLFI.
According to The Block, Jaret Seiberg, Managing Director of the Washington Research Group at investment bank TD Cowen, stated that stablecoin yield issues are not the sole obstacle to the passage of the Clarity Act—and cited the following five additional hurdles: 1. A severe shortage of Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioners: only Chairman Michael Selig remains in office, and the process to appoint new commissioners could take several months, while the bill must complete its review by the end of July; 2. Complex regulatory questions surrounding prediction markets—including concerns about insider trading and potential conflicts of interest involving the Trump family—which may prompt Democratic lawmakers to withdraw their support via related amendments; 3. Ongoing controversy surrounding World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency project affiliated with the Trump family, increasing political resistance from Democrats toward supporting the bill; 4. Reports indicating Iran is discussing requiring vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to pay tolls in cryptocurrency—a development that could trigger contentious anti-money laundering (AML) amendments, potentially serving as a “poison pill” for the bill; 5. Risk that the Credit Card Competition Act could be attached to the Clarity Act, jeopardizing the entire bill’s progress. Regarding stablecoin yield issues, Senator Thom Tillis indicated that the Senate Banking Committee will not vote on the bill until as early as May. TD Cowen maintains its assessment that the bill has approximately a one-in-three chance of passing this year, while Galaxy Digital estimates the probability at roughly 50%.
Sun Yuchen has recently filed a lawsuit against World Liberty Financial in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to protect his legitimate rights and interests as a $WLFI token holder. Sun stated that the World Liberty project team unilaterally froze all his tokens, stripped him of his voting rights on governance proposals, and threatened to permanently “burn” his tokens—without providing any reasonable explanation. He emphasized that he had repeatedly attempted to resolve the dispute through non-litigious means, but the project team refused to unfreeze his tokens or restore his rights as a token holder, leaving him with no choice but to pursue legal action. Additionally, Sun explicitly opposes World Liberty’s new governance proposal released on April 15. Under this proposal, token holders who do not actively accept its terms will have their tokens locked indefinitely; early purchasers’ tokens are subject to a two-year lock-up period followed by a two-year vesting schedule. As Sun’s tokens remain frozen, he is currently unable to vote on this proposal.
According to a CoinGecko report, the cryptocurrency market continued its bearish trend in Q1 2026, with total market capitalization declining by 20.4% (approximately $622 billion) to $2.4 trillion—down roughly 45% from its October 2025 peak. Key drivers of the downturn included tightened monetary policy expectations following Kevin Warsh’s nomination as Federal Reserve Chair and geopolitical shocks stemming from the U.S.-Iran war. The stablecoin market remained broadly stable, with total market capitalization rising slightly to $309.9 billion. USDT’s supply declined for the first time since Q2 2022, falling to $184.1 billion; USDC grew 2.4% to $77.1 billion; and USD1—issued by WLFI—rose 32.5%, boosted by Binance’s airdrop campaign. In terms of asset performance, crude oil prices surged 76.9% due to supply disruptions caused by the U.S.-Iran war, making it the strongest-performing asset this quarter; gold rose 8.1%; while Bitcoin fell 22.0%, underperforming both the Nasdaq (-7.1%) and the S&P 500 (-4.8%). Regarding trading volume, spot trading volume across top centralized exchanges dropped 39.1% to $2.7 trillion; March volume totaled just $0.8 trillion—the lowest since November 2023. Binance maintained a 37.0% market share. Among decentralized exchanges, Solana retained leadership with a 30.6% share—but was overtaken by Ethereum in March.