World Liberty Financial will fund UFC Freedom 250 performance bonuses with its USD1 stablecoin, expanding the token’s visibility through one of the largest bonus pools in UFC history.
World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance (DeFi) project backed by President Donald Trump and his family, will contribute $250,000 in its USD1 stablecoin to the fight-night bonus pool at UFC Freedom 250. The event is scheduled for June 15 on the South Lawn of the White House, coinciding with Trump's 80th birthday.
UFC President and CEO Dana White announced the arrangement June 13 at a press conference at the Lincoln Memorial. World Liberty will serve as presenting partner of the Performance of the Night bonus, with the $250,000 distributed in USD1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin.
"A victory in Washington should mean money in your pocket immediately, not when the bank opens," said Zach Witkoff, co-founder and CEO of World Liberty Financial. "USD1 makes US dollars more accessible and faster than ever before."
UFC Freedom 250 Bonus Structure
The World Liberty contribution is separate from a $1 million bonus pool funded in Crypto(dot)com's CRO token. Crypto(dot)com and Ram Trucks hold the titles of official presenting sponsors for the event, while World Liberty's role is limited to the Performance of the Night award. Two Fight of the Night winners will each receive $400,000, and two Performance of the Night winners will each receive $425,000, bringing total fight-night bonuses to $1.65 million across four fighters, the largest in UFC history.
UFC Freedom 250 is headlined by a lightweight title unification bout between Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje. Former two-division champion Alex Pereira faces Ciryl Gane in the co-main event at heavyweight. The event's total production budget exceeds $60 million, with roughly half offset by sponsorships, TKO Group Holdings COO Mark Shapiro told a Morgan Stanley conference, according to Yahoo Sports.
USD1 has reached approximately $4.4 billion in circulating supply, ranking it sixth among dollar-backed stablecoins by total supply. The sponsorship follows a December 2025 memorandum of understanding between World Liberty and Mixed Martial Arts Group Limited to integrate USD1 into that company's on-chain ecosystem.
Conflict-of-Interest Questions
World Liberty's financial disclosures show that 75% of WLFI token sale proceeds go to DT Marks DEFI LLC, a Trump-controlled entity. A Reuters investigation published this month estimated the Trump family has earned at least $2.3 billion in profit from its four main crypto ventures since the start of Trump's second term. World Liberty accounted for the largest portion of those gains, while more than 1 million outside investors recorded collective net losses of roughly the same amount, per Reuters.
An entity tied to UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty for a reported $500 million in a deal signed days before Trump's inauguration. A separate Tahnoon-led firm, MGX, used USD1 to settle a $2 billion transaction. Those arrangements prompted a House probe into potential conflicts of interest and national security concerns, including the timing of US AI chip export approvals to the UAE. The White House has said Trump's assets are held in a trust managed by his children and that no conflict of interest exists.
In January 2026, affiliated entity World Liberty Trust Company filed a de novo application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a national trust bank for stablecoin issuance and custody. Stablecoins in the US are currently regulated under the GENIUS Act, which Trump signed into law in July 2025. A separate bill known as the CLARITY Act has stalled in part over the president's financial ties to World Liberty, with lawmakers from both parties pressing for ethics provisions.
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