Trump-Backed World Liberty Financial Plans FX Trading Platform

WLF co-founder and COO Zak Folkman teased the FX platform, dubbed World Swap, on stage at Consensus Hong Kong on 12 Feb. He said that the platform will be backed by WLFI’s dollar-pegged stablecoin USD1.

The WLFI token was up around 4.8% over the past 24 hours, trading at around $0.10, still some way below its initial price of $0.31 following its launch in February 2025, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Moving beyond DeFi

The project received the Trump family's backing in 2024. It launched its governance token, WLFI, last year, which was listed on all major crypto exchanges. 

After a stablecoin and token launch, the project now appears to have set its sights on mainstream finance. Last month, World Liberty applied for a national trust bank charter, raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

The banking charter would also allow World Liberty to successfully operate a regulated foreign exchange platform. The US government closely monitors the dollar trade, with only registered banks and other entities permitted to freely exchange the greenback for other currencies.

UAE stake reports

A vehicle backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser, secretly acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500mn according to company documents cited by the Wall Street Journal. 

The deal included $187mn reportedly paid upfront to Trump family entities and additional funds directed to a co-founder’s family, effectively handing nearly half of the Trump-linked crypto venture to an Abu Dhabi-backed entity.

It follows a broader pattern of strategic UAE investments in digital assets, including major positions in Bitcoin mining and exchange-traded funds. The reported deal raised questions about potential conflicts of interest and national security implications, particularly after the US reversed restrictions on advanced Nvidia AI chip exports to the UAE.