WLFI responds to "Trump family exit" rumors: bank license approval has entered the final stage

Author: Sander Lutz

Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Deep Tide Guide: Amidst the rampant rumors surrounding World Liberty Financial’s “Trump family exit,” Donald Trump Jr. and co-founder Zach Witkoff publicly responded at the Miami Consensus conference. In addition to clarifying the rumors, Witkoff also revealed that the national trust bank license the company is applying for is “about to receive conditional approval.” Meanwhile, the company has filed a countersuit against Tron founder Sun Yuchen. A clarification has led to three lines of controversy: licenses, lawsuits, and political disputes.

Donald Trump Jr. responded on Thursday at the Miami Consensus crypto conference to a recent claim circulating on social media: that he and family members have quietly exited World Liberty Financial.

“I think I saw on Twitter that Don and Eric have given up on this project,” said Zach Witkoff, another co-founder of World Liberty, on stage.

“This news is also new to me,” Trump Jr. added. He attributed the rumors to World Liberty previously removing the co-founders list, including President Trump and his three sons, from the company’s official website, after which some people exploited the situation, with bot accounts amplifying the rumors.

“As long as enough people blindly follow what others feed them, plus bots pushing… if the rumors are true, I wouldn’t be standing on this stage,” Trump Jr. said.

“As far as I know, Don and Eric are still co-founders of this project,” Witkoff added.

It is worth noting that the host of this Q&A, David Wachsman, is actually the PR head of World Liberty, not an impartial third party.

Counterclaim against Sun Yuchen: “We will not sue without evidence”

The conversation then shifted to World Liberty’s lawsuit filed this week against crypto entrepreneur Sun Yuchen. Sun Yuchen is the founder of Tron network and one of World Liberty’s biggest backers. Last month, Sun Yuchen first sued World Liberty, accusing the company’s management of serious misconduct.

World Liberty then filed a countersuit, claiming that Sun Yuchen not only publicly spread false statements about the company but also secretly shorted the company’s native token WLFI, attempting to suppress its price.

“If there is no evidence, we will not file this lawsuit,” Witkoff said, describing the legal action as “a last resort.”

Bank license: “About to receive conditional approval”

Witkoff then shifted the topic to World Liberty’s regulatory ambitions. In January this year, the company submitted an application for a national trust bank license to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a bureau under the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Once approved, World Liberty will be able to provide critical banking services for its USD1 stablecoin.

“We are very much looking forward to obtaining the license,” Witkoff said, “I believe we are in the final stages of receiving conditional approval.”

This license has been a focal point of Democratic criticism in recent months. Senator Elizabeth Warren has repeatedly cited World Liberty’s bank license application as “possibly the most despicable presidential corruption scandal in U.S. history.”