Trump-backed WLFI eyes checkout lanes: USD1 stablecoin taps Mesh for merchant rollout

World Liberty Financial executives outlined plans to extend USD1 stablecoin payments to major online merchants during a stablecoin-focused panel at Token2049 in Singapore on Wednesday, with a public rollout targeted for this quarter. WLFI CEO Zach Witkoff and co-founder Zak Folkman appeared alongside Mesh co-founder and CEO Bam Azizi, who announced a partnership that would let USD1 holders spend the stablecoin across Mesh's payment infrastructure and merchant network. "Beyond the use of the World Liberty app itself, we are already in plans to roll out this exact same technology to some of the largest Web2 businesses that are in the marketplace," Folkman said.

WLFI is a crypto venture backed by the family of US President Donald Trump. Its USD1 stablecoin is designed to maintain a $1 value and is issued by BitGo, with reserves comprising cash, US government money market funds and other cash equivalents. USD1's market capitalization stood at $4.45 billion at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko.

Speaking on the panel, Witkoff said the firm is preparing to bring USD1 issuance in-house following conditional approval granted in August by the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for WLFI to establish a national trust bank intended to issue dollar-backed stablecoins and custody digital assets. "Today we're issuing through BitGo," Witkoff said. "With this trust charter, we'll be able to take on that responsibility ourselves." He described the approval as something WLFI had achieved "in spite of some of the attacks against us," referring to criticism from mainstream media and politicians.

The OCC's action drew criticism from Senator Elizabeth Warren, who alleged conflicts of interest tied to the Trump family's involvement with WLFI. Warren and other senators have introduced the Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act in response. The OCC said its leadership and staff had acted consistently with their statutory duties and ethical obligations when reviewing the application.