Amid the relatively stable landscape of the stablecoin market, WLFI's USD1 dollar-pegged stablecoin is attempting to carve out a niche by leveraging Trump family resources and an aggressive ecosystem strategy.
Recently, WLFI utilized treasury funds to incentivize adoption and partnered with Binance to launch a high-yield savings product offering a 20% annual percentage yield (APY), driving USD1's circulation to surpass 30 billion, with a single-day peak growth exceeding 7.6%.
According to CoinMarketCap data, as of now, USD1's market capitalization stands at $3.37 billion, ranking sixth among stablecoins by market cap, representing approximately 1.8% of USDT's total market cap and 4.48% of USDC's.
On the centralized exchange (CEX) front, USD1 has gained relatively comprehensive trading support, being listed on platforms such as Binance, Coinbase, and Upbit. Taking Binance as an example, USD1 currently has 14 trading pairs, covering assets like BTC, ETH, SOL, BNB, as well as XRP and ASTER.
Looking at trading volume data from the past three days, the BTC/USD1 trading pair recorded approximately $5.13 billion in volume, while ETH/USD1 reached about $38.9 million. For comparison, during the same period, BTC/USDT volume was around $5 billion, and ETH/USDT reached $3.59 billion; BTC/USDC volume was approximately $1.44 billion, and ETH/USDC was about $1.06 billion.
This comparison reveals a relatively clear reality: although USD1 is technically usable on exchanges, its liquidity scale for spot trading of mainstream assets still lags significantly behind USDT and is orders of magnitude smaller than USDC. At least at this stage, USD1 appears more like a stablecoin being introduced to the market rather than a foundational settlement asset with established, organic trading preference.
The recent rapid growth in USD1's circulation is closely tied to incentive measures. On December 24, 2025, Binance launched a fixed APY savings activity for USD1, offering a maximum annualized yield of 20%. Before the activity began, USD1's circulation was around 2.7 billion tokens, which then climbed rapidly and broke through 3 billion.
On January 5, 2026, WLFI officially announced that a governance proposal regarding "utilizing a portion of the unlocked treasury funds to incentivize USD1 adoption" had passed, with 77.75% votes in favor. This proposal marks WLFI's intention to continue expanding USD1's use cases through more direct resource investment.
During this period, the market also experienced brief volatility related to liquidity structure. On December 24, 2025, a relatively sizable market order briefly depressed the BTC/USD1 quote, causing the price to rapidly spike down (a "wick") to $24,111.22 near the $87,000 level, resulting in a daily amplitude of 73%.
On December 26, according to informed sources, due to the Binance savings activity attracting a large number of users to exchange USDT for USD1, USD1 once traded at a premium of about 0.39%. Some capital subsequently sourced USD1 through lending markets and gradually sold it on the spot market to meet demand. The initially thin liquidity of the BTC/USD1 trading pair led to the sharp price wick. CZ (Changpeng Zhao) explained that this trading pair was not included in any index, thus it did not trigger liquidations, and the related volatility reflected the nascent trading pair's liquidity not yet being fully established.
As of January 8, 2026, USD1's market capitalization is approximately $3.37 billion. Looking at its on-chain distribution, its issuance is primarily concentrated on BSC and Ethereum mainnet, at roughly $1.91 billion and $1.3 billion respectively, together accounting for the vast majority. In contrast, the amount of USD1 on the Solana network is about $143 million, a significantly smaller proportion. Although WLFI continuously emphasizes support for the Solana Meme ecosystem in its narrative and partnership direction, the actual on-chain holdings indicate that USD1 currently still relies mainly on the liquidity structure of traditional EVM networks.
Compared to centralized exchanges, WLFI is also attempting to promote USD1 usage through on-chain scenarios. In September 2025, WLFI announced partnerships with Solana-based Meme launch platform BONK.fun and decentralized exchange Raydium to introduce USD1 as a trading pair into related ecosystems.
On January 6, Raydium released data showing that USD1's trading volume on the Solana network over the past 24 hours was approximately $295 million.
Additionally, WLFI disclosed purchases of Meme tokens like B, 1, etc., used to support community development. Such collaborations provide USD1 with scenarios closer to native on-chain use, but the related demand still largely depends on community activity and阶段性market sentiment, its sustainability remains to be observed.
Furthermore, on January 8, WLFI disclosed that its affiliated entity, WLTC Holdings LLC, has submitted an application to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish the World Liberty Trust Company, National Association (WLTC). This entity is positioned as a national trust bank specifically serving the issuance, custody, and related financial activities of the USD1 stablecoin.
According to WLFI's explanation, the core objective of establishing WLTC is to integrate the functions of USD1 issuance, redemption, custody, and conversion to/from USD within a single, highly regulated entity. WLFI stated that USD1's circulation exceeded $3.3 billion within one year of launch and has been used by some institutions for cross-border payments, settlement, and treasury management scenarios.
If the application is approved, WLTC plans to offer three core services to institutional clients under the federal regulatory framework: USD1 minting and redemption, on/off ramps between USD and USD1, and custody and conversion services for USD1 and other stablecoins. These services are initially planned to be offered with no fees.
WLFI also emphasized that the proposed trust bank will adhere to compliance requirements including anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions screening, and cybersecurity, and will implement institutional arrangements such as customer asset segregation, independent reserve management, and regular audits. The institution will operate under a regulatory structure compliant with the GENIUS Act.
Regarding existing partnerships, BitGo will continue to be an important partner for USD1 after WLTC正式operates, supporting its subsequent development.
World Liberty Financial (WLFI) was established in 2024 as a project focused on decentralized finance (DeFi). Public information indicates a close connection between the project's structure design, market promotion, and the Trump family, with related members playing roles in project promotion and ecosystem dissemination. USD1 is a dollar-pegged stablecoin launched by WLFI in March 2025, aiming to provide a settlement asset on-chain that can be exchanged 1:1 with the US dollar, for use in cross-border payments, DeFi activities, and liquidity needs in digital asset markets.
According to information disclosed on WLFI's official website, each USD1 token is backed by an equivalent amount of US dollar reserves, primarily consisting of US dollar cash, short-term US Treasury bills, and other cash equivalents. The related assets are custodied by BitGo Trust Company and its affiliated entities, with BitGo also handling the issuance and redemption functions for USD1. Eligible BitGo clients can directly redeem USD1 for US dollars at a 1:1 ratio, while other holders need to complete conversions through exchanges supporting USD1 or regulated custodians.
Similar to other centrally issued, compliance-oriented stablecoins, USD1's official disclosures also clearly list multiple risks. Its core constraints mainly focus on several aspects: USD1 is not legal tender and does not enjoy deposit insurance; direct redemption is only available to eligible BitGo clients; although reserve assets are primarily high-liquidity assets, they may still face liquidity pressure under extreme circumstances;同时, changes in regulatory policy, address freezing mechanisms, and third-party platform risks may all affect the use and circulation of USD1.
