World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance project with ties to President Donald Trump, sponsored a $250,000 Performance of the Night bonus pool for UFC Freedom 250, paying fighters in its USD1 stablecoin. The event, held June 14 on the South Lawn of the White House, marked a high-profile crossover between crypto and mainstream sports. The announcement was made just days prior by UFC President Dana White at the Lincoln Memorial.
World Liberty’s contribution came alongside a separate $1 million pool funded by Crypto.com in its CRO token, bringing total crypto-denominated fighter bonuses at the event to $1.25 million. Individual Performance of the Night awards reached $425,000 per fighter, making it one of the largest UFC bonus nights in history. The event featured a lightweight title bout between Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje, and a heavyweight clash between Alex Pereira and Ciryl Gane.
The sponsorship places USD1—a stablecoin with a circulating supply of about $4.4 billion—in front of a massive audience, but also intensifies attention on World Liberty’s regulatory and political challenges. The project is actively seeking federal oversight: its affiliated World Liberty Trust Company filed a de novo application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to operate a national trust bank focused on stablecoin issuance, custody, and conversion. During a House Financial Services Committee hearing on June 5, lawmakers pressed Comptroller Jonathan Gould on whether the ties to the presidential family, which holds over $50 million in the venture, should influence approval. The application is being evaluated under existing banking laws and ethics rules.
At the same time, World Liberty faces compliance disputes. Earlier in June, HTX delisted USD1, claiming the project froze certain addresses linked to the exchange after sanctions-related reviews. HTX suspended trading and conversion services, later announcing it would convert eligible balances into USDT 1:1. World Liberty cited risk-based sanctions controls. The friction followed U.K. sanctions against Huobi Global S.A., an entity HTX says is separate from its operating exchange.
Broader scrutiny of World Liberty’s finances also reached Congress, with Reuters reporting the Trump family has earned at least $2.3 billion from crypto ventures since the start of the second term, while over one million outside investors collectively lost approximately the same amount. Lawmakers have highlighted a reported $500 million investment by an entity tied to UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the use of USD1 to settle a $2 billion Binance investment by Abu Dhabi’s MGX, raising conflict-of-interest and national security questions. The White House maintains no conflict exists, as assets are held in a trust managed by the president’s children.
