The CEO of Trump-linked World Liberty Financial said the company offers real utility and operates independently of political influence, refuting allegations of potential conflicts of interest.
The crypto venture, launched in 2024 by President Donald Trump, his sons and associates, operates the USD1 stablecoin and recently received conditional approval for a national trust bank charter, allowing the company to bring issuance and custody of USD1 in-house.
Trump's annual financial disclosure showed income of about $515 million from the sale of tokens released by World Liberty Financial and $65 million from sales of equity in WLF's holding company in 2025.
CEO Zach Witkoff, son of Steve Witkoff, the administration's special envoy to the Middle East, said concerns about whether companies or countries could use USD1 to funnel money to Trump and his family are misplaced, pointing to USD1's utility, liquidity and distribution.
"There's over $4 billion of USD1 in circulation [and] over a billion dollars trades every single day in volume in USD1," he said, speaking on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Tuesday morning. "Before I came on set, I checked the volume metrics — it was $1.7 billion in the trailing 24 hours, and that speaks to the use case of USD1, it speaks to customers actually using it. So I would completely dispute that notion."
Adding to the conflict-of-interest concerns surrounding World Liberty, a group linked to the United Arab Emirates reportedly bought a 49% stake, prompting questions from congressional Democrats about whether the investment influenced administration policy involving arms sales and AI-chip exports. The Trump family was also entitled to roughly $500 million from a deal between WLF and Alt5 Sigma, whose shares subsequently plunged.
Wikoff said Trump was a successful businessman long before becoming president and that USD1 is only a small part of the Trump family's broader business empire, emphasizing again that customers use the stablecoin daily.
He also said he's "never talked to" the president about business, that he "never has, never will," and said he's devoted to making World Liberty useful to customers.
"I don't spend my time thinking about those things," he said of the conflict-of-interest charges. "I spend my time thinking about how I execute on behalf of our employees and ultimately our customer. We believe that you know the internet is moving 24/7, and the dollar should as well. Stablecoins are quickly becoming the native cash layer of the internet, and I think USD1 is going to play a big part."
— CNBC's Luke Fountain contributed reporting.
Correction: This story has been revised to reflect that Zach Witkoff's father is named Steve Witkoff. A previous version misspelled Steve Witkoff's first name.
