The USD1 stablecoin, launched by World Liberty Financial (WLFI), has surpassed a $3 billion market capitalization, marking a significant milestone for the project co-founded by Donald Trump Jr. The company announced the achievement in a post on X, stating, "USD1 market cap has surpassed $3B. This is a big moment for our team and the WLFI community. But milestones aren’t the goal — building the future of financial rails is. And we are just getting started." USD1 first broke the $1 billion mark in April, less than a month after its launch, positioning itself as a tool for real-time crypto payments.
The stablecoin's growth has been accelerated by a major integration with Binance. The exchange introduced a Booster Program offering users up to 20% APR for holding USD1 in flexible earn products. More significantly, Binance confirmed it would swap all collateral backing its Binance-peg BUSD (B-Token) into USD1 at a 1:1 rate, embedding USD1 deeper into its collateral system. WLFI has also established distribution channels through partnerships with Coinbase and FalconX, and is targeting the Solana ecosystem via collaborations with the Bonk memecoin project and the Raydium decentralized exchange.
However, the rapid scaling of USD1 faced a stark test on December 24, 2025, when the BTC/USD1 trading pair on Binance experienced a dramatic flash crash. Bitcoin's price in the pair briefly plunged to as low as $24,111.22 from approximately $87,880 before rebounding within seconds. Binance confirmed the incident was isolated to the BTC/USD1 spot pair and attributed it to a "microstructure failure" caused by insufficient buy or sell orders near the market price, highlighting the pair's thin liquidity. Other major pairs like BTC/USDT were unaffected.
The event has sparked concerns about the liquidity structure and market stability of newer stablecoins like USD1, even as its adoption grows. The stablecoin's rise is also intertwined with high-profile political and financial dealings. Earlier this year, Abu Dhabi-based MGX used USD1 to complete a $2 billion investment in Binance, a transaction that occurred just before former President Donald Trump granted a pardon to Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ). This connection drew criticism from Democrats, including Senator Elizabeth Warren.
