Author: Wu Shuo Blockchain

This interview focused on the origins of World Liberty, the growth and adoption of the USD1 stablecoin, RWA's tokenization plan, the team and capital structure, and regulatory and regional market development with WLFI CEO and Co-founder Zach Witkoff and COO and Co-founder Zak Folkman. Zak explained that their goal is to serve user groups underserved by traditional finance, centered around integrated applications (transfers/spending/cryptocurrency transactions/card payments) and the USD1 stablecoin.

Reasons for joining and Zach's personal background

Colin Wu: Zach, first of all, could you briefly introduce your growing up experience or family background?

Zach Witkoff: I was born in New York City and raised by my incredibly hardworking parents, Steve and Lauren. I grew up in my family's real estate business, spending my entire career on construction sites. It was during this time that I witnessed the numerous inefficiencies in the traditional financial system. Cryptocurrencies didn't exist at the time, but this sparked my interest in how to improve the system.

Editor's Note: Steve Witkoff is an American billionaire, real estate investor, and longtime Trump ally. Born in New York in 1957, he holds a law degree. He founded the Witkoff Group and amassed a vast fortune in real estate. Following Trump's 2024 election, he was appointed Special Envoy for the Middle East, despite having no prior diplomatic experience. As Special Envoy, he participated in international affairs, including mediation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and humanitarian assistance in Gaza.

Colin Wu: How did you first get into crypto? Was there a key moment or person that made you switch from your family business to blockchain?

Zach Witkoff: Personally, I've been investing in crypto since around 2016 or 2017. World Liberty was my first real involvement in a crypto business. A big part of my motivation for getting into this space was seeing friends have their bank accounts terminated and platforms banned, and I've experienced similar situations myself. This reality became the catalyst for my entry into the crypto industry.

The origins and early development of the World Liberty Project

Zach Witkoff: About two years ago, I sat down with Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who were both in a state of dismay. I asked them what had happened, and they told me they'd had their accounts terminated by two of the largest banks in the US and had been banned from other platforms. We began discussing solutions and concluded we needed a more democratic system centered around stablecoins. With stablecoins, you'd rarely be told your account was closed (unless you're on the OFAC sanctions list). There would also be no rules about who you could send money to, why, or how. World Liberty's starting point is to truly return financial control to users.

Zach Witkoff, in a joint interview with Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump on Fox News, explained that his family and team faced account terminations and platform de-services from major banks about two years ago, leading them to decide to reshape cross-border settlement and retail payment processes around stablecoins. During a live interview at TOKEN2049 in Dubai, WLFI co-founder Zach Witkoff explained that the birth of World Liberty Financial stemmed from his observations of the pain points of traditional finance: first, a lack of transparency regarding the internal operations of major banks; second, limited accessibility, with approximately 1.4 billion people globally still unbanked; and third, low cross-border efficiency, with the overall cost of acquiring US dollars in some economies reaching as high as 9%. Eric Trump also noted that the traditional loan process still relies on paperwork and lengthy approval processes, with typical loan approval cycles of 90–120 days. On-chain transfers, on the other hand, can be completed in seconds, offering lower fees and greater transparency. He also mentioned that the Trump family's bank had canceled their accounts for political reasons, so he firmly believed that cryptocurrencies and their efforts at World Liberty Financial would make those banks regret leaving them behind, completely changing the financial system and ending the hegemony of banks.

Colin Wu: I heard that you first raised funds in Asia before the 2024 election, but it wasn't easy getting started. Then we saw Justin Sun make a significant investment?

Zach Witkoff: We respect Justin. We're friends with him. He's built a really great business on Tron; last I checked, there's about $82 billion in stablecoins on Tron. We think he's doing a great job, and we have a friendly relationship with him. That's pretty much it.

Zak Folkman: Hello everyone, I'm the COO and founder of World Liberty Financial. When I was in law school, I learned a lot about contracts and transactions. When I read the Ethereum whitepaper, I understood how Ethereum and smart contracts would revolutionize everything from finance to technology to global legal transactions, enabling two parties to transact without ever meeting or even trusting each other. Once I understood this, I dove right in. My co-founder, Chase Hero, and I are long-time business partners, and we invested heavily in Ethereum and then Bitcoin. We advised many successful startups in their early stages and have invested in and advised numerous projects through our family office.

How World Liberty helps people without bank accounts

Colin Wu: So, the next question is, can you tell us about World Liberty's current products? In particular, how they help users, especially those who don't have bank accounts?

Zak Folkman: I think the goal of World Liberty Financial is to provide people with the tools to transact financially so they don't get shut down by banks. But more importantly, it's about providing financial tools to those who are underbanked or unbanked , while also hoping that they can get more value from the services they receive than from traditional financial institutions. I imagine that many of you who watch your channel probably agree that cryptocurrency offers a faster, more transparent, more secure, and cheaper way to transact.

This is why we all love cryptocurrency so much. Combine this with the concept of self-sovereignty or self-custody, and you get something that's never been seen before. When you think of cryptocurrency, it's always been seen as something separate from the traditional financial system. Historically, if you wanted to use cryptocurrency at a store, at a gas station, to buy groceries, or for coffee, it was often very difficult. While some exchanges have launched bank cards, even these haven't been very effective.

Our goal was to provide a simple app, similar to Cash App, WeChat, or any Venmo, that allows users to easily store and send funds. Combined with cryptocurrency transactions like exchanges, staking, and yield farming, we gave users a simple card that allowed them to spend cryptocurrency at point-of-sale anywhere, anytime, making a traditional bank account completely unnecessary. Therefore, we realized that if people were going to be transacting in cryptocurrency every day, they needed a stablecoin that was globally usable and consistently pegged to the US dollar. To this end, we launched USD1, which has become the fastest-growing stablecoin in history.

Zach Witkoff: As Zak mentioned, our USD1 is the fastest-growing stablecoin, currently exceeding $2.4 billion in volume. The last time I checked, we were trading over $500 million in volume in a 24-hour period, and USD1 is only 90 days old. Beyond the stablecoin, and all the other initiatives Zak mentioned, we are actively building a very robust asset tokenization platform focused on RWAs (real-world asset tokenization). The Trump family and I come from traditional real estate backgrounds, and we both have sizable real estate portfolios that are well-suited for tokenization. I think this is a very interesting area worth exploring. But we're not stopping there. We're also looking at the oil and gas industry and the commodities industry in general. Our belief at World Liberty is that every asset in the world can be tokenized. It's a better technology, and a better system.

Misunderstandings about the USD1 Stablecoin and Binance Collaboration

Colin Wu: You mentioned the USD1 stablecoin. The community is saying USD1 has a strong partnership with Binance and BNB Chain. Is this true? When did Binance join, and how did they support USD1? We also know that Binance raised funds on USD1. Why did they choose USD1?

Zak Witkoff: This is actually a common misconception. We're not saying Binance owns a stake in World Liberty, nor are we a partner. In fact, the partnership is primarily driven by the overwhelming demand for USD1 on Binance. If you go to PancakeSwap or BNB Chain, you'll see strong demand for USD1. People are naturally pairing USD1 with meme coins there, and are also using USD1 exclusively through Binance Launchpad. So Binance primarily provides services based on user demand. Regarding the $2 billion transaction, Binance simply accepted the funds and wasn't a party to it. We convinced MGX to use USD1 for settlement because it's more secure, faster, and more transparent.

They completed a $2 billion transaction using just $1 USD, with no transaction fees and in less than two seconds. Clearly, this is a much better way to transfer funds, especially for large international payments. Therefore, Binance simply accepted the funds. If there were no demand on Binance, they could have destroyed the funds or converted them to cash. However, due to overwhelming market demand, the funds remained on Binance.

Zak Folkman: Beyond that, we actually have some fantastic partnerships across the entire BSC ecosystem. Projects like ListaDAO, PancakeSwap, and nearly every protocol on Binance Smart Chain have been very willing to work with us. I believe USD1 is not only the fastest-growing stablecoin, but also the only stablecoin with a large and fervent following.

For example, projects like Sahara AI used USD1 as part of their crowdsale, demonstrating that our community is very active, engaged, and enjoys trading. Zach just mentioned our high daily trading volume, which is due to the fact that people aren't just holding onto the token; they're actively using it, and USD1 circulates very quickly. Consequently, many projects on Binance Smart Chain want to partner with us, primarily because they know our project has incredibly loyal users and a meme-like following. Furthermore, we're a stablecoin. This brings a very unique feature to the stablecoin market, perhaps unprecedented in any other stablecoin.

How World Liberty team members advance their work

Colin Wu: My next question is, how many people are currently working on the World Liberty team, and how are you accelerating the team's work?

Zak Folkman: We're always hiring. However, we don't hire for the sake of hiring. We only hire top talent, absolute rock stars. So, every single person we hire is the best in their field, from our analysts and developers to our Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel. For every position we hire, we're looking for someone who's not just "filling a job opening," but someone who brings a unique perspective. That's why we've been able to accomplish so much with a very small team. We have about 30 full-time team members, maybe a little more now, but roughly 30. From our ecosystem managers and business development people to our senior management team, everyone is top talent, and that's what's allowed us to be so successful and grow so quickly while remaining a small team.

Zach Witkoff: We all wear many hats. No job is too big or too small at the company. I'm the CEO, Zak is the COO, and we're both involved in the smallest tasks within the company, while also overseeing the largest projects. I think this is crucial. We believe that the most successful companies of the future will have leaner teams, especially as technologies like AI become more widely adopted. I personally believe that in five years, it will be extremely difficult for a company with over a thousand employees to operate efficiently. I believe the future trend is towards a more efficient workforce.

How ALT5 Sigma helps the World Liberty ecosystem

Colin Wu: The next question is about ALT5 Sigma. Can you explain more about this company and how ALT5 helps the World Liberty ecosystem?

Zach Witkoff: Regarding ALT, we announced a deal to acquire $1.5 billion in World Liberty tokens. This deal will help our ecosystem in several ways. First, the company has some very powerful technology, particularly around stablecoins, which will help further expand the USD1 flywheel effect.

Secondly, the company's current financial strategy is primarily long-term holding, and they are actively supporting this token. We are listing it on Nasdaq and allowing it to trade freely. In the future, the company plans to continue acquiring more tokens. So, obviously, having a large buyer in the market who continues to buy and support the token is very beneficial to the ecosystem. So we are really excited. I will be joining the board as Chairman, and we will roll up our sleeves and work hard together.

What impact will Trump’s policies have on the entire crypto industry?

Colin Wu: My next question is, what do you think of Trump's crypto policies? What positive impact do you think Trump's policies will have on the entire crypto industry and the future?

Zach Witkoff: First, let me say that we separate business from politics. We are a business and we don't get involved in political matters at all. However, President Trump is obviously one of the greatest presidents in history. He has put forward clear regulatory policies and established clear rules. Therefore, these policies are very beneficial to the industry.

Throughout the cryptocurrency landscape, especially under the Biden administration, we've been operating essentially blind. People have been moving their businesses overseas because it doesn't make sense to operate in the U.S. It's simply not worth the risk, which is ridiculous. So, President Trump signed the Genius Act. I think the market structure will become much clearer going forward. And I have great respect and admiration for the entire administration team; I think they've done an amazing job.

Zak Folkman: Just to add, I think the crypto industry, at least in the United States, was previously divided along party lines. And President Trump has done a remarkable job completely bridging the divide between the two parties in the industry. He's gotten everyone on the same page, completely putting aside their political beliefs.

So if you look at how he's been able to move the industry forward, especially outside of the U.S., and get governments around the world to adopt and mirror the policies that his administration has implemented, I think everyone in the crypto industry around the world, or anyone who would benefit from crypto but hasn't realized it yet, owes him a huge debt of gratitude.

Will World Liberty conduct more activities or community building in Asia?

Colin Wu: I have one last question. Will World Liberty do more activities or community building in Asia, especially in the Chinese community?

Zak Folkman: Yes. We're actually traveling. Next week, some of our team and I will be traveling to Hong Kong to meet with many different players, investors, and potential partners in the crypto industry. Then, Zach, the rest of our team, and I will be traveling to Korea for Korea Blockchain Week. I think we're going to have a pretty big announcement at Korea Blockchain Week.

Zach Witkoff: We're also going to be making a bigger announcement at Token 2049 in Singapore, where we'll be on the main stage. So we have a lot of big news and initiatives coming up that I think the world is going to be very excited about.

Colin Wu: Yes, there will be many meetings in Asia in the next two months, and the meeting schedule for the next two months is too full.

Zak Folkman: We are clearly a US company, and all of our members are US citizens. However, we also recognize that the primary market for the global crypto industry is in Asia. We have many friends and partners in Asia, and there are a significant number of World Liberty Financial token holders across various regions in Asia. Therefore, we spend a significant amount of time there, and we will continue to spend more time there as World Liberty continues to grow.

So, thank you to all our friends in Asia who have supported us. We are very grateful for all your support and we will travel to Asia as much as possible. We look forward to seeing more of you in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, or anywhere else.

Zach Witkoff: I think that's one of the great joys of building World Liberty. Sometimes Zak, Chase, and I will walk down the street and run into members of our community, and they'll say, "Oh my god, thank you so much! This is the best community!" It really makes every day special. And that's really what we're all about—giving people the tools to live better and be happier. As Zak said, dear community, we really love you. If you see us in Asia, please stop by and say hello. We're incredibly accommodating. We probably fly five or six hundred hours a year, and we believe it's incredibly important to fly to the places around the world where we do business, to truly understand the problems and develop solutions. So yes, we'll continue to work hard for the community, the project, and World Liberty. I'm sure the community will be very pleased with our results.