By Zhou Xin

Copyright scmp

World Liberty Financial, a venture backed by the family of US President Donald Trump, took centre stage on Wednesday at the world’s largest cryptocurrency event in Singapore, as Trump’s eldest son and his business partner promoted the firm’s USD1 stablecoin and its potential for “dollarising the world”.
At Token2049, World Liberty Financial co-founders Donald Trump Jnr and Zach Witkoff, who serves as CEO, received rock star treatment from a cheering audience, as they touted the success of USD1, a stablecoin backed by US Treasury securities, as a tool to defend the US dollar’s global role.
“It was a year ago on this very stage, they were making fun of what we’re trying to do, and now we’re the fastest growing stablecoin ever,” Trump, 47, said. “I think we’re doing pretty good”.
While stressing that World Liberty Financial was not a political entity, Trump said the venture’s stablecoin “definitely benefits America”.
He pointed out that promoting the use of USD1 would “create and maintain the dollar hegemony that’s allowed America to lead … and to have the power over the world that has kept so many places safe, sound and strong”.
The Trump-led venture’s push for USD1 adoption reflects the current state of the world’s stablecoin market, which is dominated by tokens backed by US assets.
Tether Holdings’ USDT, for example, is at the forefront of stablecoins – digital assets that peg its value to fiat currencies. Its USDT token, tied to the US dollar, is the world’s largest with a market value of US$172 billion. Circle internet Group’s USDC stablecoin, meanwhile, is worth about US$74 billion.

Witkoff – the son of Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East and special envoy for Peace Missions – said at Token2049 that “dollarising the world is … a patriotic mission” and it is also “very good for the world”.
He credited the US president “for single-handedly saving the crypto industry from people who wanted to ruin it … and brought crypto back to its rightful home, the United States of America”.
At the conference, Witkoff also announced the launch of a debit card that would bridge “crypto assets with everyday spending”. This confirmed an earlier report that the Trump family venture would allow Apple Pay users to pay in USD1.
“We’ll be rolling out a pilot programme here in the next quarter,” he said, adding that the debit card would go live this fourth quarter or the first quarter of 2026.
According to Trump, the debit card was a major project and there were “numerous other things” World Liberty Financial was working on to bring stablecoins into day-to-day life, as he reiterated that the crypto venture was established because the Trump family was mistreated by the conventional financial system.
Still, the Trump family’s ties with the crypto community have raised concerns from US Democratic lawmakers about conflicts of interest, as World Liberty Financial has been endorsed and backed by Asian cryptocurrency entrepreneurs such as Justin Sun.
The China-born founder of the Tron blockchain had made “sizeable” investments in two cryptocurrency projects – the $TRUMP memecoin and World Liberty Financial’s WLFI token – since Trump’s re-election in November, which “directly enriched the President and his family”, according to the lawmakers.