News linked to both this project and an event.
According to The Block, bipartisan Senators Thom Tillis (Republican) and Ruben Gallego (Democrat) submitted a new ethics compromise proposal to the White House on Thursday morning local time, attempting to break the deadlock in advancing the Clarity Act cryptocurrency legislation. Currently, there is less than a week left until the Senate recesses on August 7, but the bill still has not obtained the 60 votes required for passage. Democrats insist on adding stricter ethics provisions to constrain the Trump family's crypto interests, including the Meme coins they issued and the World Liberty Financial project in which the family participates, while some Republican senators have objections to the stablecoin interest provisions, worrying that it will divert deposits from traditional banks to the crypto sector. Although the draft leaked last week prohibited public officials and their spouses from issuing digital assets, it did not cover other family members, and included a "sunset clause" expiring in January 2029, which critics believe essentially nullifies the entire ethics provision. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent subsequently blamed the Democrats on X, stating that they "chose political gaming on the verge of a major victory". The Crypto Innovation Committee (CCI) warned that if the bill fails to pass, the US will hand over its global leadership position in the field of crypto regulation.
according to official sources, Gate launched the USD1 Staking to Earn Rewards financial product starting at 00:00 (UTC+8) on July 29. During the event, users can earn rewards by holding USD1 in their asset accounts. The minimum holding requirement is 1 USD1, and users can enjoy a maximum annualized yield of 8%. Rewards will be distributed daily to eligible users in the form of WLFI. The annualized yield will be dynamically adjusted daily based on the remaining reward budget and the platform's total effective USD1 holdings, and will be updated around 14:00 (UTC+8) each day. Additionally, the on-chain staking reference APY for USD1 is currently 6.89%, offering users diversified yield options.
It is reported that Bybit recently launched the USD1 Ecosystem Incentive Program. The event runs from July 24 to August 2, with a total prize pool of 2 million WLFI. During the event, users can participate in the reward distribution by trading designated USD1 trading pairs.
TownSquare, an institutional yield and cross-chain lending brokerage service infrastructure, announced the official launch of its ICO public sale. This public sale is technically supported by the Echo Sonar platform from the Coinbase ecosystem. The valuation is divided into two tiers: a $150 million valuation based on a 6-month lock-up, and a $200 million valuation with no lock-up and full release at TGE, with a fundraising cap of $1 million. Currently, 30 minutes into the public sale, over $200,000 has been raised. According to data, most users chose the second tier with the $200 million valuation. This public sale is the first project based on the Monad ecosystem on Sonar, supporting USDC and USDT0 tokens on Monad. Previously, TownSquare completed a total of 3 rounds of financing totaling $16.25 million, with participation from World Liberty Financial, Auros Ventures, Amber Group, Animoca Ventures, OKX Ventures, as well as angel investors and institutions from ecosystems such as Monad, a16z, etc. It is projected that the previous valuation is comparable to this ICO valuation. TownSquare Sonar Public Sale Registration: townsq.xyz/sale
Odaily President Trump will meet on Thursday with Republican Senators Bernie Moreno and Cynthia Lummis, along with White House crypto policy advisor Patrick Witt and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, to focus on the ethics provisions in the CLARITY Act. These provisions are considered one of the main obstacles to advancing the crypto market structure bill.Kristin Smith, President of the Solana Policy Institute, stated, "The purpose of the meeting is to present some proposals on the ethics issue to Trump and hope to gain his support. I believe this is a very positive signal." She described the meeting as crucial for pushing the CLARITY Act through.Earlier, it was disclosed that Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial had received hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto-related revenue, raising concerns among Democrats about potential conflicts of interest. (The Block)
As of the end of June, 988,905 buyers of the Donald Trump-branded TRUMP Meme coin had collectively incurred losses of $3.81 billion, accounting for about two-thirds of all buyers. Nansen data shows that Donald Trump earned $636 million from the Meme coin; advanced crypto traders using automated tools profited $4 billion before TRUMP dropped 97%.On July 3, TRUMP was priced at $1.76, down 97% from its peak of $75.35. Donald Trump's annual financial disclosure indicates that he earned $2.2 billion from various business ventures in 2025, including proceeds from the token; he also received $799 million from World Liberty Financial. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly denied claims that Donald Trump profited at the expense of his supporters. (Bitcoin.com News).
U.S. President Trump’s newly released 927-page financial disclosure document reveals income including hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto-related earnings. Among these are millions of dollars in revenue linked to World Liberty Financial, the DeFi project launched by the Trump family in 2024. This disclosure has heightened the urgency of congressional negotiations over ethics provisions within the Clarity Act, the crypto market structure bill.Currently, bipartisan lawmakers are negotiating the Clarity Act, which aims to establish the first comprehensive federal crypto regulatory framework in the United States. A key focus of the negotiations is whether to include ethics restrictions preventing the President, Vice President, members of Congress, and other federal officials from profiting from digital assets while in office.Following the document's release, Democratic lawmakers reiterated that the bill must contain strict ethics clauses. Senator Angela Alsobrooks stated that such restrictions should apply to the President, Vice President, and all members of Congress. She noted that ordinary Americans should benefit from digital assets in a fair and honest manner, rather than allowing political figures to profit through corruption and institutional loopholes.Senator Kirsten Gillibrand also indicated that both parties are still advancing stringent ethics reforms, proposing to prohibit the President, Vice President, and lawmakers from using crypto assets for personal gain. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren argued that if the Clarity Act fails to prevent the President, members of Congress, and their families from profiting from the crypto industry, the bill would further fuel controversies surrounding Trump-related crypto corruption.Republicans, for their part, stated that ethics clauses remain part of the bipartisan negotiations. With the July window for advancing the Clarity Act approaching, the disclosure of Trump family crypto income could become a key variable influencing the final text of the bill and the level of Democratic support.
According to The Block, Trump's annual financial disclosure report (totaling 927 pages) released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics shows that Trump received significant crypto-related income through his family crypto company World Liberty Financial (WLF), including over $65.6 million from the sale of WLF Holdco equity and approximately $236.25 million from WLF token sale allocations. Additionally, the report disclosed his cold wallets holding various crypto assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC, LINK, AAVE, ENA, MOVE, and ONDO, and that he received approximately $1.8 million in Ethereum staking rewards. Trump also holds up to $100,000 in Coinbase stock and multiple investments in Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy). In contrast, Vice President JD Vance's annual financial report is only 17 pages, disclosing that he holds Bitcoin valued at up to $500,000.
five Democratic senators urged a Republican committee chairman on Tuesday to immediately hold hearings to investigate a report that the UAE invested $500 million in the Trump family's crypto venture, World Liberty Financial.According to reports, an aide to the Abu Dhabi royal family signed an agreement four days before Trump's inauguration last year to purchase a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million. An advance payment of $218 million has been made to entities linked to Trump and his Middle East diplomat, Steve Witkoff, and their families. The senators confirmed that the backer is UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan.Since Trump took office in January 2025, his administration has approved several deals favorable to the UAE, including a $1.4 billion weapons sale in May 2025 and authorization in November to sell 35,000 advanced AI chips worth over $1 billion to UAE-based G42. (financefeeds)
Odaily, U.S. Senate Democrats have sent a letter to Republican leadership demanding an immediate hearing regarding the potential relationship between the Trump family's crypto project, World Liberty Financial, and the Abu Dhabi royal family.This follows a report by the Wall Street Journal that an investment entity backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, secretly acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial. The project is a DeFi and stablecoin venture, with Donald Trump and his three sons listed as advisors.According to the report, the deal was signed by Eric Trump four days before Trump's presidential inauguration in January 2025. The transaction was valued at $500 million, half of which was paid upfront. Approximately $187 million flowed to entities controlled by the Trump family, while at least $31 million went to entities linked to the family of World Liberty co-founder Steve Witkoff. Witkoff was later appointed as the U.S. Special Envoy for the Middle East, and his son, Zach Witkoff, currently serves as CEO of World Liberty.The Trump side has stated that Trump was unaware of the $500 million investment and was not directly involved in the daily operations of World Liberty Financial. Democrats argue that the matter involves potential conflicts of interest between the president's family business interests, foreign capital, and government diplomatic roles, and have therefore called on the Republican-led Senate to launch an investigation as soon as possible.
World Liberty Financial, a crypto project backed by the Trump family, is expected to receive approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to operate as a national trust bank in the near future. Two former OCC employees who spoke on condition of anonymity revealed that the application is almost certain to be approved.World Liberty Financial established a U.S. trust company in January of this year and submitted an application to the OCC. Obtaining a federal trust bank charter would allow the project to issue and redeem its USD1 stablecoin, manage reserves, provide digital asset custody, and offer conversion and settlement services under a single federal regulatory body, without relying on third-party intermediaries. Currently, the project's intermediary institution is BitGo. (The Block)
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.