Trump Crypto Venture World Liberty Financial Partners With KuCoin, Exchange Banned In U.S., Fined $300 Million
Donald Trump’s crypto venture launched its stablecoin Wednesday on an exchange recently banned from the United States after admitting to violating anti-money laundering laws and agreeing to pay a $300 million fine.
President Donald Trump speaks at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in July in Nashville. (AP Photo/Mark ... More Humphrey, File)
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reservedTrump is also the chief crypto advocate and inspiration for World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance platform launched in September 2024 with the involvement of his three sons.
Trump and his family control about 60% of the company through an LLC, according to World Liberty Financial’s website.
World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin, a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to the U.S. dollar, began trading Wednesday on KuCoin, a crypto exchange headquartered in the Seychelles.
KuCoin pleaded guilty in the United States in January to one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, agreeing to pay almost $300 million in penalties and exit the U.S. market for at least two years.
KuCoin’s indicted cofounders, Chun Gan and Ke Tang, also agreed to no longer have any role in the company’s management or operations, according to the Justice Department, which deferred prosecution against them for two years.
Spokespeople for the White House, World Liberty Financial, the Trump Organization and KuCoin did not immediately respond to inquiries.
Trump can earn income from his businesses while in office through the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, the same structure he used during his first term. He is its sole donor and beneficiary, while Donald Trump Jr. serves as the trustee. The Trump Organization confirmed in an April court filing in Britain that Trump retains control over his businesses. As president, he has pledged to make the United States the “crypto capital of the world,” aligning with his expanding investments in digital assets.
While there’s no evidence World Liberty Financial and KuCoin’s talks mentioned the plea agreement it reached with the Justice Department earlier this year, other Trump business associates have personally benefited from his administration’s actions. For example, Chinese blockchain entrepreneur Justin Sun invested $30 million in World Liberty Financial tokens just weeks after Trump’s election. Soon after Trump’s inauguration, Trump’s SEC asked a judge to pause its fraud case against Sun to “explore a potential resolution.”
“For years, KuCoin avoided implementing required anti-money laundering policies designed to identify criminal actors and prevent illicit transactions,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle R. Sassoon said in a statement announcing the plea deal. “As a result, KuCoin was used to facilitate billions of dollars’ worth of suspicious transactions and to transmit potentially criminal proceeds, including proceeds from darknet markets and malware, ransomware, and fraud schemes.”
“It’s not terribly surprising to me,” Molly White, a crypto researcher, told Forbes of USD1’s trading on KuCoin. “It's also listed on [crypto exchanges] HTX and MEXC, neither of which serve U.S. customers for regulatory reasons.”
The terms of the deal between World Liberty Financial and KuCoin are not clear. Typically both parties earn trading fees, while some exchanges also charge listing fees and generate additional profits from market making, White said.
An ethics white paper the Trump Organization released in January noted the Constitution does not bar a president from owning, operating or managing a private business. But to “avoid even the appearance of any conflict,” the company said it hired an outside ethics adviser and Trump pledged to continue to keep his assets in a trust and not manage the company directly. (The Trump Organization has since fired that adviser at Trump’s instruction.)
Trump once called for heavy regulation of crypto, telling Fox Business in 2021, “I don’t think we should have all of the bitcoins of the world out there.”
Senate Democrats introduced the End Crypto Corruption Act earlier this month, which would bar presidents and other officials from “issuing, endorsing or sponsoring crypto assets.”
$2.14 billion: USD1’s market cap, according to Coinbase, a crypto trading platform.
U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, who announced KuCoin’s plea deal, resigned in February after the Justice Department sought to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms like World Liberty Financial let users trade, borrow and lend crypto without banks. Stablecoins—such as the USD1 token—are digital currencies pegged to a traditional asset, like the U.S. dollar. The firms behind stablecoins typically profit from trading fees and interest earned on deposits.
Forbes estimates Donald Trump is worth about $5.3 billion, with much of his wealth coming from his shares in Trump Media.
Further Reading
Trump Businesses Hauled In $317,000 From RNC In March—Even As Crypto Ventures Soar (Forbes)
Donald Trump Is Invested In Cryptocurrency (Forbes)
Trump’s Sons Invest In AI Data Centers After He Touts Billions In Industry Expansion (Forbes)
Trump Media Executives Launch New SPAC Seeking $179 Million—And Target Crypto, Defense Sectors (Forbes)
How Truth Social And Crypto Helped Trump Double His Fortune In Just One Year (Forbes)
How Trump’s Bitcoin Policies Are Making The U.S. A Crypto Superpower (Forbes)
Trump’s Crypto Reserve Hit With Unexpected Backlash From Billionaire Allies (Forbes)
