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World Liberty Financial is pushing its $3.4 billion USD1 stablecoin into crypto lending, marking a shift from issuance to active financial use. The Miami-based firm, which lists former U.S. President Donald Trump as “co-founder emeritus,” launched a lending and borrowing platform that places USD1 at the center of on-chain credit activity. The move turns a fast-growing stablecoin into live market infrastructure at a moment when crypto lending is rebuilding credibility.
The new platform, World Liberty Markets, allows users to lend and borrow digital assets using blockchain-based contracts. USD1 sits alongside Ether, tokenized Bitcoin, USDC, USDT, and World Liberty’s WLFI governance token as accepted assets. The system runs on technology provided by Dolomite, a decentralized lending framework already used in other DeFi markets.
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It's official. @worldlibertyfi Markets are live and powered by Dolomite.
Every deposit, borrow, and position settles directly on Dolomite contracts. https://t.co/vlAKOPVaY3 pic.twitter.com/vui0BSmrDe
— Dolomite 🏔️ (@Dolomite_io) January 12, 2026
USD1 has grown quickly since its 2025 debut. Its supply reached roughly $3.4 billion within a year, according to market data, an expansion closely tied to exchange access and liquidity. The stablecoin’s profile rose further after Binance listed additional trading pairs and after Abu Dhabi-based MGX used USD1 in a multibillion-dollar transaction tied to Binance in May 2025, according to prior reporting.
Crypto lending once defined the industry’s excesses, with centralized firms collapsing during the 2022 downturn after relying on opaque balance sheets and aggressive leverage. Newer lending models are taking a different approach, keeping collateral and liquidation mechanics visible on-chain and limiting credit expansion to assets posted upfront rather than unsecured promises.
World Liberty’s entry follows that shift. The platform offers borrowers a way to access liquidity without selling core holdings, a structure that regained traction in late 2025 as market conditions stabilized and demand returned for fully collateral-backed lending instead of yield-driven speculation.
The lending launch arrives as World Liberty seeks a national trust bank charter from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Approval would place parts of USD1’s operation inside the US banking framework. That pursuit gives the lending platform a regulatory backdrop most DeFi projects lack.
World Liberty Financial Announces that WLTC Holdings LLC has Submitted an Application for a National Trust Bank Charter to Issue and Custody USD1 Stablecoins 🦅☝️https://t.co/ulapagYLYq
— WLFI (@worldlibertyfi) January 7, 2026
World Liberty co-founder Zak Folkman has said the platform may add new collateral types over time, including tokenized real-world assets. In earlier public remarks, Folkman pointed to real estate linked tokens as a possible direction, a move that would push crypto lending closer to traditional asset-backed credit markets.
4/ WLFI Markets is built to support the future of tokenized finance by providing access to third party and WLFI-branded real-world asset products, supporting new tokenized assets as they launch, and creating deeper and wider access to USD1 across all WLFI applications. It’s…
— WLFI (@worldlibertyfi) January 12, 2026
World Liberty’s lending push does more than add another DeFi venue. It tests whether a politically connected stablecoin can move from rapid issuance into sustained financial use while navigating regulatory review. If USD1 holds up inside lending markets, it becomes harder to treat stablecoins as passive plumbing. They start acting like balance sheets.
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