Original｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Since WLFI officially announced the launch of the stablecoin USD1 on March 25, the circulation of USD1 has surpassed 2 billion coins in less than three months, with a market value of 2.18 billion USD. In comparison, USDT took about 5 years (early 2019) to reach this milestone; USDC took about 2 years (September 2020). Although the maturity of the cryptocurrency industry varies, achieving this result in such a short time highlights the strong development momentum of USD1. In light of this, Odaily Planet Daily will outline the development ideas of USD1 and the potential for large-scale adoption in this article for readers' reference.
The Bold Path of USD1: First Occupying Ethereum and BSC, Then Expanding to TRON
On March 25, amidst rampant market speculation, WLFI officially announced the upcoming launch of the "institution-grade stablecoin" — USD1.
According to the official announcement, USD1 will be 100% backed by short-term U.S. Treasury bonds, dollar deposits, and other cash equivalents. Initially, USD1 tokens will be minted on the Ethereum and BSC chains, with plans to expand to other protocols in the future. Each token is designed to maintain a value of 1 USD, fully supported by a reserve portfolio regularly audited by a third-party accounting firm; the USD1 reserves will be custodied by BitGo, the largest independent qualified custodian in the world.
At that time, as a strong competitor to USDT and USDC, and backed by the Trump family project WLFI, the USD1 stablecoin project sparked market speculation, with many believing it could replace the two major stablecoins, USDT and USDC. In response, Binance founder CZ stated: "USDT and USDC do not need to be replaced; the more stablecoins, the better." The reason behind this is that BSC is one of the main ecosystems supporting USD1.
In the following days, as Congress was reviewing the "Stablecoin Innovation Act," five Democratic senators jointly wrote a letter to the Federal Reserve and OCC, questioning the "unprecedented risks" posed by the USD1 stablecoin launched by the Trump family crypto project WLFI, directly targeting Trump, claiming that he weakened regulatory independence through a February executive order and holds a 60% stake in WLFI, constituting a significant conflict of interest.
Despite this, USD1 continued to progress smoothly and was confirmed in May by WLFI co-founder Zack Witkoff that USD1 would also be natively issued on the TRON chain. On June 14, the first USD1 was successfully minted on the TRON chain, announced by TRON founder Justin Sun, and subsequently confirmed by Eric Trump, the son of Trump.
Looking back at the development path of USD1, this "new player in the stablecoin market" over the past two months is a model of unique and conventional strategies.
The Unique and Conventional Path of USD1: Institutional Adoption as the Conventional Approach, Meme Liquidity as the Unique Strategy
The "Art of War" states: "In all warfare, the general must be able to make use of the normal and the extraordinary." This means that in battle, there are generally two types of strategies: one is to engage in a direct confrontation using conventional tactics, and the other is to launch a surprise attack using unconventional tactics.
For a stablecoin project like USD1, since it lacks the first-mover advantage of early stablecoin projects like USDT and USDC, and given that Trump, as the President of the United States, is neither able nor willing to promote its large-scale adoption through executive orders or coercive policies, it needs to combine both conventional and unique strategies, having a regular approach for advancement while also preparing for extraordinary breakthroughs.
The Grand Conventional Path of USD1: Institutional Investment and Institutional-Level Adoption
For stablecoin projects, the most important goal is — "to have users." For an early-stage stablecoin project, the demand for institutional-level adoption is stronger and the liquidity scale is larger compared to the dispersed market of retail investors, which is why USD1 has focused on institutional adoption since its inception.
Specifically, WLFI has taken two actions to promote the institutional adoption of USD1:
First, in the investment sector. As Eric Trump previously stated, the USD1 stablecoin issued by WLFI has been officially selected as the stablecoin for the UAE sovereign fund MGX's 2 billion USD investment in Binance. As the first major financing case in cryptocurrency history, MGX's investment in Binance is undoubtedly a significant milestone in the development of cryptocurrency, and as the official stablecoin for this financing, USD1 will also create a typical case for global stablecoin adoption, promoting the credibility and usability of crypto stablecoins in the global economic market while driving its own large-scale adoption. Additionally, at the end of May, WLFI announced that USD1 would be the only designated stablecoin for the well-known AI project Sahara Labs (SAHARA) on the Buidlpad platform. The investment landscape for USD1 has been established.
Second, in terms of crypto market makers. DWF Labs, one of the well-known crypto market makers, is also an important partner of USD1. It not only participated in the early interactions of USD1 but also received 1 million USD1 for market making in early April. Furthermore, wallet users holding USD1 can also participate in the internal testing and farming activities of the stablecoin protocol Falcon Stable under DWF Labs. Moreover, besides DWF Labs, the well-known market maker Wintermute was the top institutional holder of USD1 on the chain, and Wintermute's OTC platform has also opened support for USD1.
Third, in terms of exchanges and crypto projects. USD1 has also received strong support from the BSC ecosystem. In addition to BSC being the native issuance network, the pillar project of the BSC ecosystem, Lista DAO, launched the USD1 Vault for its lending product Lista Lending in mid-April to be the first application of this stablecoin on the BSC chain. Additionally, Binance announced in May that users withdrawing USD1 through the BNB Chain would enjoy zero fees. Subsequently, as USD1 gradually developed, various projects including BounceBit, Kernel DAO, the BSC ecosystem AI data labeling project Tagger, and many crypto exchanges have followed suit in supporting USD1.
Moreover, the U.S. publicly listed company Amber International has included USD1 in its "100 million USD crypto ecosystem reserve plan," and the pre-sale of influencer Hasbulla's BULLA token also received funding related to USD1.
It can be said that crypto exchanges and projects, crypto market makers, and crypto investment institutions and platforms together form the "institutional adoption landscape" of USD1.
The Unique Strategy of USD1: Meme Liquidity and Large-Scale Airdrop Distribution
A stablecoin that only has institutional participation is not a good stablecoin, as the majority of the crypto market still consists of retail investors.
To promote the use and popularity of USD1 at the user level in the market, WLFI has also chosen a two-pronged approach:
First, by encouraging and supporting Meme coin projects to build USD1 liquidity pools, this aims to promote a broader adoption of USD1. A landmark event in this initiative was WLFI's first purchase of the Binance Alpha token BuidlON (B), which was driven by the launch of the USD1 liquidity pool associated with the B token. For more details, see “The Market Value of BUILDon Backed by WLFI Reaches 400 Million USD, What Other Targets Are Worth Attention?”. Furthermore, WLFI subsequently launched a USD1 Trading Competition (Liquidity Promotion Activity) in collaboration with multiple projects in the BSC ecosystem, encouraging Meme coin projects within the BSC ecosystem to create USD1 trading pools. In the latest round of the event, the Meme token EGL1, centered around American culture, won first place in the event with a trading volume of nearly 200 million USD in the past week.
USD1 Trading Competition Leaderboard
Second, WLFI had planned to airdrop USD1 to WLFI token holders as early as April. After passing a community proposal vote, the plan was officially implemented in early June, airdropping 47 USD1 tokens to WLFI subscribers' addresses (market speculation suggests this number may relate to Trump being the 47th President of the United States), and within a short time, a total of 4 million USD was airdropped. It must be said that perhaps every stablecoin project's development path cannot do without the step of "generously distributing tokens."
Latest news indicates that WLFI has officially integrated with OKX Wallet, allowing users to seamlessly access the project and participate in cross-chain services for the stablecoin USD1. With this, WLFI and USD1 have successfully completed the final piece of their application puzzle — the infrastructure of the crypto wallet industry.
**Conclusion: The Explosive Potential of USD1 is Worth Anticipating
**
According to Coinmarketcap data, USD1 currently has a 24-hour trading volume of approximately 600 million USD, with CEX trading volume accounting for about 20% and DEX trading volume accounting for about 80%, indicating that its "unique and conventional" development path is already showing results.
As the U.S. stablecoin regulatory bill "Genius Act" is about to be implemented, backed by the Trump family and WLFI, the application scenarios for USD1 are expected to expand further. At that time, it may become another major stablecoin project following the "crypto stablecoin leader" USDT and the "first stock of stablecoins" USDC.
Moreover, influenced by Trump's presidential identity, USD1 may play a significant role as a medium for trade currency or in resolving U.S. Treasury bonds worth trillions of dollars in the subsequent tariff trade wars.
Recommended Reading
The Golden Age of Stablecoins Begins: USDT to the Left, USDC to the Right
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