Zach Witkoff, the CEO of World Liberty Financial, has cited USD1’s trading activity as evidence that the stablecoin is generating market demand.
Witkoff directed his comment as a response to critics who view USD1 as a tool to buy influence with the President of the United States. The debate has become more relevant even as federal regulators just issued out a bank charter to World Liberty Financial that will increase the influence of the President’s family in the company
Over a 24-hour period, USD1 has recorded around $1.42 billion in trading volume, with a market value of ~$4.03 billion and a turnover ratio greater than 35%.
Witkoff sees such trading activity as organic “USD1 grew because institutions trust how it operates, and confidence at enterprise scale deserves the backing of federal supervision,” he said, and says the company is open to scrutiny from federal regulators.
Why Trump’s WLFI is facing scrutiny
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued World Liberty Trust Co. preliminary conditional approval on August 14 to operate a national trust bank. This would allow the company to issue and redeem USD1 directly, hold the reserves backing USD1, and offer custody without depending on an external partner.
It’s not exactly a conventional bank as it can’t issue loans, credit cards, and federally insured deposits.
That approval succeeded in fueling the debate around the demand for USD1. World Liberty aims to “drive mainstream adoption of USD1,” and Donald Trump has praised the 2025 stablecoin law he signed for making possible the “widespread adoption of dollar-backed stablecoins.”
What the critics say about World Liberty’s numbers
Ethics watchdogs and academics have a different opinion. James Angel, who works as an associate professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, said that the rationale for anyone holding USD1 is simply its proximity to the White House.
The scale gap only adds to the skepticism. Tether has approximately $183 billion in circulation and Circle’s USDC over $70 billion, while USD1 hovers around $4 billion.
Regardless, Democrats have not held back. Senator Elizabeth Warren tagged the decision by the OCC as “the most brazen act of self-dealing our financial system has ever seen.”
Along with Representative Maxine Waters, Senator Warren has requested the SEC answer whether or not Trump’s financial ties affected the management of World Liberty matters.
The financial stake behind the dispute
The reason the question of demand is important is the amount of money involved. DT Marks DEFI LLC, a venture linked to the Trump family, owns approximately 38% of the holding company in control of World Liberty Financial, and members of the Trump family hold 22.5 billion of its governance tokens.
Trump’s 2025 financial disclosure revealed approximately $600 million in proceeds from World Liberty token and equity sales.
World Liberty refuses to accept the conflict of interest angle. They argue that Trump has nothing to do with the management of the company and none of its leaders or staff is a government employee.
A spokesperson for the company says the critics “are missing the point” because the firm is currently looking to follow regulations and necessary oversight rather than avoid them.