Key Takeaways
- World Liberty Financial will launch USD1, a stablecoin backed by US treasuries and cash equivalents.
- USD1 will be minted on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain, with reserves audited and held by BitGo.
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World Liberty Financial, the DeFi project inspired by President Donald Trump, on Tuesday confirmed its plans to roll out USD1, a stablecoin built with institutions and sovereign investors in mind.
“USD1 provides what algorithmic and anonymous crypto projects cannot—access to the power of DeFi underpinned by the credibility and safeguards of the most respected names in traditional finance,” said Zach Witkoff, WLFI co-founder.
The planned stablecoin will be redeemable one-to-one for US dollars and backed entirely by short-term US government treasuries, dollar deposits, and cash equivalents.
The team said that it will launch on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain, with plans for expansion to other protocols. The launch date is being kept under wraps for now.
As part of the initiative, WLFI has partnered with BitGo, a heavyweight in digital asset custody, to provide custodial and prime brokerage services for USD1. The reserves will be regularly audited by a third-party accounting firm.
Discussing the plan, Mike Belshe, BitGo’s CEO, said that the launch of WLFI’s USD1 stablecoin would represent a major step forward in making digital assets more appealing and usable for large, traditional financial institutions.
“Our clients demand both security and efficiency, and this partnership with WLFI delivers both – combining deep liquidity with the assurance that reserves are securely held and managed within regulated, qualified custody,” Belshe said.
Initial tests and other key products
The announcement comes after WLFI made a number of test transactions for its USD1 stablecoin on the BNB Chain, Crypto Briefing reported Monday. Wintermute also performed cross-chain tests between Ethereum and the BNB Chain.
The stablecoin deployment follows WLFI’s completion of $550 million in two sets of token sales, which is expected to pave the way for future developments.
“In terms of what we’re building, I would say that we have three main products that we’re actually building and developing. Two of which are already done and ready to ship,” said Folkman in a recent discussion with Chainlink’s co-founder Sergey Nazarov.
Folkman revealed that two of the products include a lend-and-borrow market powered by smart contracts and a protocol focused on real-world assets (RWAs).
Unlike traditional DeFi lending platforms that rely on DAOs, World Liberty Financial will manage its lending market through its own governance process. The platform aims to serve traditional financial institutions with tokenized assets.
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