WLFI, the token linked to Trump-affiliated World Liberty Financial, rose about 10% after a $3.5 trillion asset manager said it would test the company’s $1 stablecoin as a settlement rail for tokenized funds.
WLFI’s rise during the morning in Asia was greater than that of Bitcoin or Ether, which were both down 0.5%, according to CoinDesk market data.
The gathering comes as speakers at the World Liberty Financial forum at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday touted stablecoins as central to American financial leadership.
“The reality is that the financial system as a whole will look very different in the next five years than it has in the last 50 years,” Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) said at the event. “It’s going to happen somewhere. We’re going to see a huge amount of innovation in financial services. The question is: Will it happen in America or somewhere else?”
Senator Moreno stressed that lawmakers must “get this market structure bill across the finish line in the next 90 days,” arguing that clear rules for digital assets are essential if the United States is to lead the next phase of financial innovation rather than cede it overseas.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong also spoke about the importance of the market structure bill at the event and said that banking trade groups – not individual banks themselves – are responsible for blocking progress.
World Liberty Financial co-founder Zak Folkman introduced USD1 as more than a retail stablecoin, describing it as “an institutional-grade dollar” designed for real-world settlement and cross-border use.
“This is what we did when we wanted to build an institutional-grade dollar,” Folkman said, adding that the token will feature “real-time proof of reserves, powered by Chainlink,” allowing users to verify on-chain support.
Earlier in February, at Consensus in Hong Kong, Folkman announced the upcoming World Liberty Forex platform.
On Wednesday, Folkman positioned USD as a bridge for global payments, saying the project would start with the US-Mexico corridor before expanding to support up to 40 currencies. “It’s $1 as a settlement bridge,” he said.
Looking ahead, Folkman linked the stablecoin use case to AI-powered trading.
“We are entering a world where AI agents will need to transact autonomously,” he said. “AI agents can’t open bank accounts, they can’t write checks, but they can hold stablecoins.”
“What we are building is a complete financial system,” Folkman added.
