World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture backed by President Donald’s family said on Thursday that it plans to roll out a new foreign exchange and remittance platform, offering simplified services with lower fees. The firm will launch the platform World Swap soon, according to co-founder Zak Folkman.
“There’s over $7 trillion of money moving around the world from currency to currency, and all of this has been taxed very heavily by the incumbent players,” he said.
The firm said it wants to connect users directly to debit cards and bank accounts around the world and settle foreign exchange remittances at what it says will be “a fraction of” the fees charged by competitors.
World Liberty Markets — World Liberty’s lending platform, which launched four weeks ago as part of a push for greater usage of its USD1 stablecoin — has recorded $320 million in lending and more than $200 million borrowed, Folkman said.
READ: Trump family’s global crypto empire raises ethical questions (
This move comes after a Wall Street Journal report revealed that an investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates acquired nearly half of the crypto firm, a $500 million stake, four days before Trump’s second inauguration.
The deal, signed by the president’s son Eric Trump, gave the Emirati-backed firm a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, according to the Journal. The partnership between the Trumps and Emirati-linked investors raised fresh questions about the president’s potential conflicts of interest. The investors were lieutenants of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a United Arab Emirates royal, the country’s national security adviser and manager of its largest wealth fund who paid up front, with $187 million going to Trump family entities and at least $31 million going to Witkoff family entities.
READ: UAE firm acquires $500 million stake in Trump’s cryptocurrency company (
The Journal report prompted new scrutiny of the Trump administration’s dealings with the UAE and Tahnoon, with some in Congress warning of potential conflicts of interest or corruption.
“This is corruption, plain and simple,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. “The Trump Administration must reverse its decision to sell sensitive AI chips to the United Arab Emirates.” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told the Journal that ”[t]here are no conflicts of interest.” She added that Witkoff is working to “advance President Trump’s goals of peace around the world.”
World Liberty fueled a sharp increase in income for the Trump family business, known as the Trump Organization, including from foreign entities, in the first half of last year, according to Reuters.