A crypto firm with Trump ties sets out to tokenise his retal estate empire

By Matthew Griffin Connected Society 25th March 2026

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

A president-linked stablecoin entrenching dollar dominance signals politics, not central banks, may soon steer global money.

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World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture linked to U.S. President Donald Trump, is planning to launch new products, including a debit card and tokenised commodity assets, as the Trump crypto empire grows. The firm’s CEO, Zach Witkoff, made the announcements speaking alongside World Liberty Financial co-founder, Donald Trump Jr. on Wednesday.

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The debit card would “bridge crypto assets with everyday spending,” Witkoff told a crowd in Singapore at the Token2049, one of the world’s largest crypto conferences.

“We’ll be rolling out a pilot program here in the next quarter, and that debit card will either be live Q4 or Q1′26,” said Zach, who is the son of Steve Witkoff, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East under the Trump administration.

Zak Folkman, co-founder of World Liberty Financial, had reportedly teased the rollout of a debit card along with a retail application at Korea Blockchain Week 2025 last month. However, Trump Jr. and Witkoff said the company wasn’t ready to make an announcement regarding the consumer-facing app.

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Witkoff said the team is also looking into the tokenisation of real-world commodities.

“We’ve not only thought about it, we’re actively working on it,” Witkoff said. “I think commodities are a really interesting area for us, whether it be oil, gas, things like cotton, timber, all of those things, frankly, should be traded on chain.”

World Liberty Financial describes itself as a decentralised finance protocol and cryptocurrency company, and it began publicly trading its crypto token WLFI in September.

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“Ultimately, we’re looking to create utility; that’s something that’s been largely missing in crypto. That could be from commodities to tokenisation to retail-type users like the debit card,” Trump Jr. told CNBC on the sidelines of the Token2049 conference.

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The company has also launched a stablecoin dubbed USD1, which says it is pegged to the U.S. dollar and backed by short-term U.S. government treasuries.

World Liberty Financial’s USD1 has already become the fifth-largest stablecoin in the world, with a market capitalisation of approximately $2.7 billion.

The growth comes amid a broader embrace of crypto from President Trump, who has backed policies welcomed by the industry and appointed crypto advocates to his cabinet in his second term.

Bitcoin’s price has risen over 80% in the last 12 months amid buoyant investor sentiment surrounding President Trump’s re-election and a more positive U.S. regulatory environment on crypto.

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In addition to being involved in World Liberty Financial, Trump has launched his own meme coin, called $TRUMP. Involvement in these crypto ventures has led to accusations of corruption, conflicts of interest and self-dealing from opposition lawmakers, as well as calls for ethics investigations.

On Wednesday, Trump Jr. had, in part, acknowledged some of these concerns, saying that the World Liberty Foundation was not a political organisation.

However, he added that the company’s aim is to benefit America’s national interest, and that the USD1 stablecoin would help support the purchasing of U.S. treasuries and help create and maintain dollar hegemony.

“We’re flying to every single corner of this globe, convincing people to onboard to USD1 which, in effect, convinces those people to go buy U.S. Treasuries, and it’s great for the U.S. dollar,” said Witkoff.

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The team announced Wednesday that USD1 would be launching on an additional blockchain network, Aptos. Witkoff told CNBC that additional partnerships with Asian-based players would be announced soon.

Data in June had found that demand for USD1 on centralised exchanges had been muted. While USD1 had drawn significant volume on decentralised exchanges, more than half of its liquidity came from just three wallets, raising questions about real demand.

The stablecoin market is vast, with USD1 facing stiff competition from existing giants such as Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC. The WLFI has also seen price volatility since it began trading.

World Liberty Financial in August that technology firm ALT5 Sigma would begin buying large quantities of its digital token as part of a WLFI treasury strategy.

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As part of the deal, World Liberty would receive shares in ALT5, according to , in return for $750 million worth of $WLFI coins.

Why does it matter that a stablecoin is tied to a sitting president?
Because it blurs the line between state monetary policy and private commercial interest. A presidentially linked token that funnels demand into US Treasuries can quietly reinforce dollar dominance while raising hard questions about conflicts of interest, oversight and who ultimately sets the rules of the new digital money system.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.

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