📅 January 12 | United States
The crypto project backed by Donald Trump has just crossed a line few expected to see so soon. World Liberty Financial, which began as a controversial bet on a dollar-backed stablecoin, is now fully entering the crypto lending business, one of the most sensitive, lucrative, and politically explosive segments of the ecosystem.
📖World Liberty Financial officially launched World Liberty Markets, its first lending and borrowing platform, marking its direct entry into the crypto lending markets. The product is powered by Dolomite, a protocol specializing in decentralized lending, and allows users to lend and borrow digital assets using
$USD1 as the base currency, along with collateral in ether, USDC, USDT, and tokenized bitcoin.
This launch transforms USD1 into more than just a simple payments stablecoin. With a market capitalization approaching $3.5 billion, USD1 is already positioned just behind PayPal's PYUSD, solidifying its status as one of the largest dollar-backed stablecoins in the market in less than a year since its launch in March 2025. The move into lending reinforces its utility and aims to increase organic demand for the token within the DeFi ecosystem.
The move also coincides with a sustained recovery in crypto credit. According to data from Galaxy Digital, active loans in DeFi reached nearly $41 billion at the close of the third quarter of 2025, propelling the total crypto lending market — both centralized and decentralized — to a new all-time high of nearly $74 billion. World Liberty appears to be entering the market just as the sector regains traction after the 2022–2023 crash.
In parallel, the project is making progress on the regulatory front. Last week, an entity affiliated with World Liberty applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for the creation of a national trust bank focused on the issuance, custody, and conversion of stablecoins. If approved, USD1 would fall under direct federal oversight, a step few stablecoins have attempted and one that would bolster its institutional legitimacy.
Topic Opinion:
This move toward lending, combined with the expansion of USD1 and the attempt to become a regulated trust bank, suggests a systemic ambition. The problem is not merely technical or financial, but institutional. Never before has a crypto project with such direct ties to a sitting president penetrated so deeply into critical financial infrastructure. Although World Liberty insists that Trump does not manage its day-to-day operations, the magnitude of the revenue and the scope of the project make the debate about conflicts of interest unavoidable.
💬 Is World Liberty a legitimate innovation… or a political and financial time bomb?
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