Trump’s World Liberty Enters Crypto Lending With New DeFi Platform
What Has World Liberty Launched?
World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance project linked to the family of U.S. President Donald Trump, has entered the crypto lending market with the launch of a new onchain platform called World Liberty Markets. The product went live on Monday and allows users to both borrow and lend digital assets within a single marketplace, according to a Bloomberg report.
The platform is built around USD1, World Liberty’s U.S. dollar–backed stablecoin, alongside its governance token, WLFI. Users can post collateral such as ether, tokenized BTC, and major stablecoins including USDC and USDT. The setup mirrors common DeFi lending structures, where borrowers unlock their underlying holdings.
World Liberty co-founder Zak Folkman told Bloomberg that the collateral menu will expand over time and could include . He also said the project is exploring partnerships with prediction markets, crypto platforms, and real estate platforms, pointing to a broader ambition beyond pure crypto-native lending.
Investor Takeaway
Why Is Crypto Lending Gaining Traction Again?
Interest in crypto borrowing and lending is building again as digital assets move deeper into mainstream finance. For many investors, collateralized loans offer a way to access liquidity without triggering taxable events or giving up long-term exposure. That demand faded later than the 2022–2023 credit blowups, but it has begined to return alongside clearer rules and more cautious risk design.
Previous failures such as BlockFi and Celsius were driven largely by centralized balance sheets, opaque leverage, and maturity mismatches rather than flaws in blockchain infrastructure itself. In response, newer lending products are leaning harder on onchain transparency, automated collateral management, and stricter isolation of risk.
Market participants argue that these structural differences matter. Onchain protocols publish positions in real time, enforce margin rules automatically, and remove discretionary rehypothecation. While risks remain, especially during sharp market moves, the mechanisms are easier to audit than the off-chain credit models that collapsed in earlier cycles.
How Does World Liberty Fit Into the Broader Lending Landscape?
World Liberty’s entry comes as activity across DeFi lending protocols has rebounded, with peaking again in recent months, according to DefiLlama data. The recovery reflects both rising asset prices and renewed use of lending as a core DeFi function rather than a yield-chasing tool.
Centralized and hybrid lenders are also returning with revised offerings. Nexo, for instance, has rolled out zero-interest borrowing products that let BTC and ether holders take out loans against their assets, reflecting continued demand for simple collateralized credit. At the infrastructure level, Babylon recently raised $15 million from a16z Crypto to build BTC-native lending rails, highlighting investor appetite for systems that operate directly on-chain.
World Liberty’s diverseiator is its stablecoin-first approach. USD1 already plays a role in cross-border payments and treasury use cases, and the lending platform gives holders another reason to keep assets within the ecosystem. According to CoinMarketCap data, USD1’s market capitalization has grown to $3.4 billion, giving the project a meaningful base of liquidity to draw from.
Investor Takeaway
What Role Does Regulation Play in This Move?
The lending rollout follows World Liberty’s recent application for a national trust Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The company has said such a charter would support wider adoption of USD1 by giving it a clearer regulatory footing for payments, custody, and treasury operations.
That backdrop matters. As U.S. policy around infrastructure sharpens, projects that align lending, payments, and issuance under one framework may find it easier to scale. World Liberty’s timing suggests it expects regulatory clarity to support, rather than hinder, onchain credit activity.
Whether World Liberty Markets attracts sustained usage will depend on execution, collateral management, and how it performs during volatile conditions. But its launch adds another data point to a wider trend: crypto lending is returning, this time with more emphasis on transparency, collateral discipline, and regulatory alignment than in past cycles.
