Binance Deepens Ties to Trump-Backed Stablecoin Following Founder’s Pardon

World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin is now a part of Binance’s core infrastructure, the crypto project backed by U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Thursday press release.

Following the stablecoin’s debut on Ethereum and the Binance-backed BNB Chain in September, the decentralized finance project said that USD1 is now being traded on the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange against BNB, Ethereum, and Solana.

The move represents the latest sign of deepening ties between World Liberty and Binance, following Trump’s pardon of founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao in October. Zhao, who served a four-month sentence, pleaded guilty to violating laws against money laundering.

If Binance’s users want to exchange Circle’s USDC or Tether’s USDT into World Liberty’s USD1, the Trump-backed project said the crypto exchange won’t charge them a fee.

Zach Witkoff, the CEO and co-founder of World Liberty—and whose father Steve serves as Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East—described the expansion as an important moment. 

“By integrating USD1 into liquidity, trading, and collateral systems on the world’s largest exchange, Binance is giving hundreds of millions of users improved access to USD1,” he said in a statement, while highlighting the project’s efforts to promote stablecoins.

Earlier this year, USD1 stablecoin was tapped for a $2 billion investment in Binance from Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund MGX, prompting allegations of corruption among some U.S. lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

Decrypt has reached out to Binance for comment.

World Liberty’s governance token WLFI changed hands around $0.14, a 5% decrease over the past day, according to CoinGecko. The token’s price has fallen 30% since its September debut.

The stablecoin is backed by cash and U.S. Treasuries, which generate revenue for World Liberty, depending on the size of USD1’s market capitalization. After debuting with a $2.6 billion footprint in September, the asset’s value had reached $2.75 billion as of Thursday.

The stablecoin is traded broadly, on platforms such as Coinbase and Kraken, but trading volume was concentrated on Bullish on Thursday. The exchange that went public in August had facilitated $55 million worth of USD1 trading volume over the past day.

Binance had generated roughly $38 million worth of USD1 trading volume over the same period of time, with 63% of that taking place against Tether’s incumbent product.