- World Liberty Financial says it was attacked.
- Its USD1 stablecoin briefly traded below its target value.
- Posts started disappearing from co-founder Eric Trump's X account.
World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto project, is reeling after a “coordinated attack” briefly knocked its flagship USD1 stablecoin off its target dollar value.
At around 1 pm London time on Monday, posts mentioning World Liberty Financial started disappearing from the project’s co-founder Eric Trump’s X account.
At the same time, USD1 holders began dumping their tokens en masse, pushing the stablecoin down to just over $0.99 in their haste to exit.
“Attackers hacked several WLFI cofounder accounts, paid influencers to spread FUD, and opened massive WLFI shorts to profit from the manufactured chaos,” a Monday post from the official World Liberty Financial X account said.
“It didn’t work.”
Sharp turnaround
The USD1 stablecoin has since returned to its targeted dollar value. Yet that’s done little to reassure fans of the $3 billion crypto project.
Investors have already pulled out over $270 million from the Trump stablecoin since the incident, according to DefiLlama data.
The project’s governance token, WLFI, shed more than 8% of its value in the aftermath.
It’s a sharp turnaround for World Liberty Financial, which just courted some of the crypto industry’s most high-profile and influential figures at its splashy Mar-a-Lago event dubbed the World Liberty Forum.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong were joined at the gathering by financial heavyweights, including Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman.
World Liberty Financial and the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
USD1 fears
Founded in 2024, World Liberty Financial’s stated mission is to “democratise access to financial opportunities while fortifying the global status of the US dollar.”
The project’s nine co-founders include President Trump, his sons Eric, Donald Jr, and Barron, US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steven Witkoff and his sons Zach and Alex, and Trump allies Zak Folkman and Chase Herro.
Herro, a former “get-rich-quick” class instructor, has previously referred to himself as the “dirtbag of the internet.”
In a since-deleted YouTube video, Herro said: “You can literally sell shit in a can, wrapped in piss, covered in human skin, for a billion dollars if the story’s right, because people will buy it.”
World Liberty Financial’s biggest success is its USD1 stablecoin.
The token, which the project says is fully backed by US dollars and dollar equivalents, has grown to a market capitalisation of more than $4.7 billion, making it the fifth-largest stablecoin.
So when USD1 fell below its target on Monday, holders were understandably rattled.
“All USD1 funds remain completely safe, secure, and fully backed. Our infrastructure and team operated exactly as designed,” World Liberty Financial said on X.
Unusual activity on Eric Trump’s X account added to investor anxiety.
The World Liberty Financial co-founder deleted several recent posts that mentioned the project around the time USD1 started falling in value.
It’s not clear why the posts were deleted, or if the activity was the result of Eric Trump’s account being hacked. Older posts mentioning the project were not deleted.
Insider dealing?
The alleged attack on World Liberty Financial comes as the project fights off critics and allegations of insider dealing.
Last month, a Wall Street Journal investigation alleged that Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan secretly signed a deal with the Trump family to purchase a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million.
Critics have tied the transaction to a landmark artificial intelligence deal in which the US agreed to grant the Abu Dhabi–based firm G42 access to advanced AI chips.
A spokesperson for World Liberty Financial has confirmed the transaction’s existence to multiple news outlets.
Earlier in November, a 60 Minutes investigation tied a $2 billion investment deal between Binance and Abu Dhabi’s MGX to a presidential pardon given to the crypto exchange’s founder, Changpeng Zhao.
Critics say the deal, which was conducted with USD1, was done as a favour in exchange for the pardon.
Binance CEO Richard Teng and Zhao’s lawyer Teresa Goody Guillen have both dismissed claims that the exchange helped boost USD1 before Zhao received the pardon.
The White House has repeatedly refuted allegations of insider dealing.
“President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest,” Anna Kelly, the deputy press secretary, previously told DL News.
Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.
