Trump Family Enters the Stablecoin Race? A Deep Dive into the Binance Smart Chain's "USD1 President Stablecoin"

By: blockbeats|2025/03/25 17:00:03

The ever-evolving BSC ecosystem witnessed another surge in popularity early this morning. The DeFi project World Liberty Financial (WLFI), supported by the Trump family, launched the USD-pegged stablecoin USD1 on BSC. After CZ shared this news, a community-created token with the same name instantly entered a "gold rush mode."

Trump Family Enters the Stablecoin Race? A Deep Dive into the Binance Smart Chain's

Due to numerous scam tokens with the same name, both CZ and the WLFI official accounts posted warnings to users to beware of scams. Subsequently, the price of USD1 quickly retraced, dropping over 50% from its peak at the time of writing.

The total supply of USD1 exceeds $3.5 million. According to on-chain data from Etherscan and BscScan, this project issued the World Liberty Financial USD (USD1) token in early March. CZ confirmed that the stablecoin contract has been deployed on the BNB chain and Ethereum, currently open for testing to a limited number of addresses.

Why Did WLFI Target a Stablecoin?

The reason WLFI targeted a stablecoin may lie in its developmental trajectory. Since initiating its first token sale in October last year, WLFI has aimed to become the "decentralized finance benchmark," promoting to investors in the US and globally. With Trump himself serving as the "Chief Crypto Advocate" and his three sons as "Ambassadors" and "DeFi Visionaries," the family's aura has been their biggest selling point. However, difficulties in the initial fundraising round and the market perception as a "meme project" led to significant doubts.

A stablecoin project thriving in a bear market can not only provide WLFI with trading, lending, and liquidity services but also generate substantial long-term returns. Following the launch of USD1, it might attract a significant amount of institutional and retail funds, potentially helping WLFI shed its "meme project" label and transform into a genuine DeFi player. According to WLFIArtemis and Dune platform data, the active stablecoin wallet count grew by over 50% between February 2024 and February 2025. In March of this year, the total stablecoin market value surpassed $230 billion, with USDT and USDC still dominant. WLFI's entry at this time might leverage favorable policies to compete for market share.

Since Trump's election, he has publicly supported cryptocurrency development multiple times, promising to make the US the "global crypto center" and emphasizing the US Dollar's dominant position in the digital economy. Given that stablecoins serve as a vital vehicle for digitizing the Dollar, they have naturally become a policy focal point.

The launch of USD1 comes at a critical time as the U.S. Congress is deliberating on the "Guidance and Effective Supervision of Stablecoin Innovation Act” (GENIUS Act). The bill was approved by the Senate Banking Committee on March 13 with 18 votes in favor and 6 against, poised to proceed to a full Senate vote. This marks a significant step towards the bill becoming law, signaling the first approval of stablecoin regulation at the Senate committee level.

Bo Hines, Executive Director of the Presidential Advisory Council on Digital Assets, expects the bill to be submitted for Trump's signature before June. Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, suggests that the U.S. Congress may pass stablecoin-related legislation by August 2025, with the GENIUS Act seen as a key driving force. If WLFI can refine USD1 early, it not only has the potential to quickly comply with the law after its enactment but may also seek a regulatory “green channel” leveraging Trump's influence.

Following the Trend or Seizing the Opportunity?

Since Trump returned to the White House as the "Crypto President," his and the WLFI family's actions have gradually become a barometer of the crypto market. Following CZ's return to the BSC ecosystem, the heat has surged, trading volumes have picked up, and various "power couple shill" meme coins have made the market exceptionally lively. Meanwhile, stablecoins continue to attract attention with their positioning as a "bear market haven." The launch of USD1 by WLFI this time can be said to have gathered the three major "BUFFs" of Trump's traffic, BSC ecosystem, and stablecoin concept, naturally generating high interest.

Although the timing is auspicious, in fact, WLFI's layout for stablecoins was not a spur-of-the-moment decision but rather a well-thought-out plan. Back on October 14 last year, Rich Teo, former CEO of Paxos, joined WLFI as the head of stablecoin and payment business, with this personnel change already sparking speculation in the market about its foray into stablecoin projects.

Then on October 29, Decrypt reported, citing sources, that WLFI planned to develop its own stablecoin. At that time, the project had already raised $14 million through an initial token sale, but the product still needed time to enhance security.

On March 13 this year, Bloomberg revealed that WLFI had held secret discussions with Binance, with four sources disclosing discussions on the possibility of collaborating to develop a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin. Although negotiation details were not made public, this clue aligns well with the current launch of USD1 on BSC.

While it is currently not possible to trade USD1, the market is full of speculation as to whether this is another question mark over Trump's new "harvesting" strategy. After all, this year's crypto market has been spun around by this president's tariff threats, meme pumping, and post-liquidation shilling. Just the day before yesterday, he was still passionately shouting "I LOVE $TRUMP—SO COOL!!! The Greatest of them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" for his $TRUMP, but obviously the market is no longer buying it. This time, the shilling only caused $TRUMP to briefly rise by about 12% before quickly falling back.

As for USD1 itself, is its collateral mechanism transparent? When will the audit report be released? These key pieces of information have not been disclosed. Moreover, the outside world has been in constant controversy over WLFI and related conflicts of interest issues. Since the launch of the WLFI platform in September 2024, many operational details have never been made public. Its official website shows that Trump and some of his family members hold 60% of the company's shares. As of March 14, the project has completed two rounds of public token sales, raising a total of $550 million. According to the issuance document of the initial token sale of World Liberty, Trump and his related company, DT Marks DEFI LLC, will receive 75% of the net revenue as fees—meaning a profit of $390 million.

But perhaps the bigger question lies in Trump's true motives. Is his pro-crypto stance a genuine effort to drive industry development, or is it a case of "fishing in troubled waters" for his family's benefit? Can WLFI break free from the skepticism of "harvesting" and the stereotypical image of a "meme project" to truly become a builder in the DeFi space? The answer may only be judged by time.