What Is USD1? A US Stablecoin Launched by World Liberty Financial

What Is USD1?

USD1 is a US stablecoin launched by the Trump-linked crypto project, World Liberty Financial, in March 2025. USD1 is a fiat-backed stablecoin with its reserves held by the digital asset custodian, BitGo, with its reserves primarily held in short-term US government treasuries much like the current stablecoin giants USDT and USDC.

Key Takeaways

• USD1 is a USD stablecoin launched by the Trump-linked crypto project, World Liberty Financial.

• USD1 is a fiat-backed stablecoin that holds a portion of its cash reserves in US government treasuries similar to that of USDC and USDT.

• USD1 has secured a major exclusivity deal and has been selected to complete Binance’s $2 billion investment deal with MGX, propelling USD1 to over $2B in market capitalization, making it the fastest growing stablecoin in history.

USD1 is currently available on Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain (BSC), with plans to expand to other blockchains in the coming future. USD1 markets itself as an “institutional-ready stablecoin”, built for both institutions and retail investors. At the time of writing, USD1 has a market capitalization of $2.1B despite only being live for a little over a month, making it the fastest growing stablecoins in history.

Meet USD1 — the stablecoin your portfolio’s been waiting for.

Built for institutions and retail alike. Backed by dollars. Custodied by BitGo.
No games. No gimmicks. Just real stability.https://t.co/vXPbZe0GPn

— WLFI (@worldlibertyfi) March 25, 2025

USD1: A Fiat-Backed USD Stablecoin

Fiat-backed stablecoins are a type of stablecoins that rely on a corresponding reserve backing of real world assets, typically cash or cash equivalents, such as US government treasury bills, to maintain its peg. These stablecoins can be exchanged with its issuer 1 to 1 for its equivalent value in fiat; for instance 1 USDC can be exchanged for 1 USD with USDC’s issuer, Circle. This means that whenever the value of USDC falls below $1, there exists an arbitrage opportunity for traders to purchase USDC for under $1 and earn a profit after they exchange the USDC for USD with Circle. This arbitrage trading helps to keep fiat-backed USD stablecoins at the parity of $1.

USD1’s design appears to be similar to that of USDC and USDT – fiat-backed stablecoin projects which also keep a portion of their reserves in US government treasuries. Perhaps the unique selling point of USD1, is the reputation and backing that comes with being a stablecoin project associated with the US President, Donald Trump.

As seen in the announcement below, where USD1 is the stablecoin used to complete a $2 billion investment deal, the success of USD1 seems to depend on the team’s ability to secure institutional support and usage. In light of this, USD1 seems to be taking a different approach to growth versus incumbents USDT and USDC, both of which are commonly used in retail. Instead, USD1 appears to be focusing on institutional adoption via exclusivity deals which perhaps might introduce positive spillover effects and foster retail adoption.

Read here to learn about the other types of stablecoins and its use cases.

The Rise of USD1: USD1 to Complete Binance’s $2 Billion Deal With MGX

WLFI co-founder Zach Witkoff announced at the Token2049 Dubai crypto conference in late April that USD1 has been selected as the stablecoin used to complete a massive $2 billion investment deal involving Binance and MGX. Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX previously announced that it would invest $2 billion into the crypto exchange Binance with the intention of closing the deal using stablecoins, with no mention of which stablecoin it intends to use. This announcement likely explains the sudden surge in USD1’s market capitalization to over $2 billion.

USD1’s sudden market capitalization surge, likely due to this announcement.

Potential Risks of USD1

While USD1 has seen significant growth, there are some risks users should be aware of around the new stablecoin. 

Lack of Attestations

At time of writing, there’s no information about the breakdown of reserves backing USD1. In the case of other fiat-backed stablecoins, like USDC and USDT, there are records around issuer assets and liabilities, presenting users with an easy way to verify that stablecoins are backed with a corresponding amount of assets. However the project has communicated that every USD1 issued will be 100% backed by short-term US government treasuries, US dollar deposits, and other cash equivalents. It also committed to have its reserve portfolio regularly audited by a third-party accounting firm. 

Lack of Liquidity

Given its nascent stage, it is uncertain where users can obtain USD1 liquidity if they wish to buy or sell the stablecoin, other than two relatively small DEX pools on Ethereum and BSC, along with HTX currently. However the current testing phase seems to involve prominent crypto market maker Wintermute, which would bolster confidence in the project. Another market maker, DWF Labs, also recently made an investment into WLFI, and could also potentially be involved. It is also unclear at this point in time how redemptions between USD1 and actual dollars would work, though this could potentially be facilitated via its custodian BitGo. 

Potentially Perceived as Politically Partisan

While the CEOs of other stablecoin issuers, like Tether, have come out to comment on US crypto regulation, they highlight that the success of the stablecoin hinges more on the success of the United States instead of Donald Trump. However, given that USD1 is launched by World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a decentralized finance venture backed by President Donald Trump and his family, the new stablecoin is inextricably tied to the US President.

Where and How to Buy USD1

As mentioned previously, USD1 is currently minted on the blockchains Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Users may buy or sell USD1 using the decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap and PancakeSwap respectively. Upcoming integration with the Tron ecosystem has also been announced recently by the WLFI team.

Buying USD1 on Ethereum

You can buy USD1 on Ethereum through Uniswap. 

Step 1: Go to https://app.uniswap.org/ and Connect Your Wallet

Step 2: Search and Select the USD1 Token

To avoid potential phishes and scam tokens, ensure that the token you have selected has the correct contract address (0x8d0d000ee44948fc98c9b98a4fa4921476f08b0d).

Step 3: Enter Selected Amounts of Tokens to Buy and Sign the Transaction

Buying USD1 on BSC

You can buy USD1 on BSC through PancakeSwap.

Step 1: Go to https://pancakeswap.finance/swap and Connect Your Wallet

Ensure that you have selected “BNB Chain” in your blockchain selection as shown in the top right.

Step 2: Search and Select the USD1 Token (BSC Version)

To avoid potential phishes and scam tokens, ensure that the token you have selected has the correct contract address (0x8d0d000ee44948fc98c9b98a4fa4921476f08b0d). In this scenario, note that the contract address for both Ethereum and BSC versions are the same, hence users should be mindful of what blockchains they are on before completing the transaction to avoid purchasing it on the wrong blockchain they intend to do so on.

Step 3: Enter Selected Amounts of Tokens to Buy and Sign the Transaction

Buying USD1 on HTX

Major milestone: USD1 is now officially listed on @HTX_Global.

The USD1/USDT pair is live for deposits now.
Trading begins tomorrow, and withdrawals open May 7th.

Our first major exchange listing—and just the beginning.
Let’s build.

🦅 🇺🇸https://t.co/p0WNe1qDIx

— WLFI (@worldlibertyfi) May 5, 2025

The World Liberty Financial team recently announced a crypto exchange listing at HTX, a top 10 crypto exchange. Users are now able to buy/sell USD1 using USDT on HTX, a popular crypto exchange formerly known as Huobi. This centralized exchange listing gives users an alternative to acquiring USD1 outside of decentralized exchanges which as mentioned earlier, may have liquidity issues.

Typically speaking, liquidity on centralized exchanges is larger than on decentralized exchanges, which reduces concerns of slippage and price impact, although the volume of USD1 traded on HTX is currently significantly lower than PancakeSwap. Due to the recency of this announcement, users are advised to verify this for themselves before executing any large transactions.

Potential USD1 Airdrop

On 8 April 2025, the World Liberty Financial team proposed a one-time airdrop of small amounts of USD1 to token holders of its governance token WLFI. The team said that this airdrop is intended for them to test out their airdrop functionalities as well as to give early supporters a small reward. The full proposal and forum discussion on this can be found here. This proposal has not officially been approved yet, but forum discussions on this are highly supportive of this proposal.

Eligibility requirements and/or snapshot dates for this airdrop are not known yet. However, since this airdrop’s primary intention is for testing purposes instead of decentralization, it is unlikely that the airdrop will be lucrative for most.

Conclusion

The USD1 stablecoin appears to be promising, being the fastest growing stablecoins in history thanks to exclusive usage deals secured by the team as shown in the MGX Binance deal. Should the World Liberty Financial team be able to secure many more of such deals, USD1 has the potential to grow to compete with the likes of USDC and USDT.

However, much of USD1’s growth currently appears to be hinged on the team’s ability to secure institutional support via deals, rather than from retail use which are prevalent in the other stablecoins USDC and USDT. It has to be mentioned however that USD1’s political backing and ties to the U.S. President may have significantly increased its likelihood of securing exclusive deals compared to most other stablecoin projects. Similarly, it remains unclear whether USD1’s growth is driven by genuine real usage or merely by exclusive deals enabled through its political connections.

Finally, note that this article is only for educational and informational purposes, and should not be taken as investment or financial advice. Always do your own research before investing any capital in cryptocurrencies.