WLFI CEO Disputes Trump Conflict Claims as USD1 Surges
World Liberty Financial (WLFI)
ambcrypto.com reports that World Liberty Financial CEO Zach Witkoff has rejected allegations of a conflict of interest between the Trump family and the firm's USD1 stablecoin. In a CNBC interview on 25 August 2026, Witkoff cited USD1’s organic traction, noting over $4 billion in circulation and $1.7 billion in 24-hour volume. He stated, "So I would completely dispute that notion," emphasizing that customer usage drives the token's utility.
The project faces scrutiny due to Witkoff’s connection to U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and a Wall Street Journal claim that Binance’s Changpeng Zhao helped scale USD1 before receiving a presidential pardon. Despite Democrats withholding support for the CLARITY Act over ethics concerns, WLFI secured a conditional trust charter license from the OCC last week. This approval allows the firm to custody its own reserves, a move Witkoff believes will help "institutionalize its business."
On a year-to-date basis, USD1’s market supply grew by +20% to hit $4 billion. In contrast, Tether’s USDT slipped 2% to $183 billion during the same period. Witkoff maintained that he focuses on driving utility for users rather than engaging with conflict-of-interest claims. Overall, USD1 has outperformed the broader stablecoin sector despite the political scrutiny surrounding Trump’s crypto empire.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for WLFI, measured when this story was written up on 27 August 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
WLFI is trading at $0.05900 with a 24-hour spot volume of $5,614,178 across 36,302 trades. Short-term momentum shows a buy ratio of 52.4% over the last hour and 56.3% over four hours, indicating immediate buying pressure. However, the 24-hour buy ratio sits lower at 46.4%, suggesting that intraday buying has not sustained across the full day. Volume deltas reflect this shift, with positive inflows of +$12,989 (1h) and +$184,546 (4h) contrasting with a net outflow of -$402,974 over 24 hours. The Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) closed at -$132,687, confirming that selling pressure outweighed buying over the longer timeframe. Net buying occurred for only 9 of the 24 hours, highlighting that the recent price action was driven by short bursts of activity rather than consistent demand.
The latest daily buy ratio of 43.5% sits at the 10th percentile of the last 322 days, against a median of 47.8% - weaker buying than most days.
Twenty-four hours later
What WLFI did over the 22 hours after the story broke. The market moves for its own reasons; this is what happened, not what the story caused.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for WLFI, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
This trading activity contrasts sharply with the preceding week, where WLFI saw only 1 of 7 days with net buying. The 7-day average buy ratio was 46.9%, meaning the current 24-hour ratio of 46.4% is slightly below the weekly norm by 0.5 points. Volume over the last 24 hours was just 0.35x the weekly average, indicating a significant drop in trading activity compared to recent trends. Over the past 8 days, the price has declined by 4.1%, with a total volume delta of -$3,007,374. This data suggests that despite today's short-term buying spikes, the coin remains in a broader downtrend with subdued volume relative to its weekly baseline.