WLFI CEO & COO in Conversation: Dismantling Banking Hegemony
Author | WuBlockchain
This interview with WLFI co-founder Zach Witkoff and WLFI COO, co-founder Zak Folkman examines World Liberty’s origins; the growth and applications of the USD1 stablecoin; plans for RWA tokenization; team structure and capital deployment; and the company’s approach to regulatory engagement and regional market development. Zak stated that their goal is to serve user groups underserved by traditional finance through an integrated application — remittances, spending, crypto trading, and card payments — built around the USD1 stablecoin.
Zach Witkoff emphasized that there is no equity or formal partnership with Binance, and the demand for USD1 on the BNB Chain is primarily driven by the market itself. He also mentioned facilitating a $2 billion cross-border settlement and noted that ALT5 Sigma plans to acquire $1.5 billion in WLFI tokens to support the ecosystem. The team operates with a lean but efficient configuration of about 30 members. On the policy front, Zach believes the new regulations provide clearer rules for the U.S. industry and will focus on expanding the community and activities in Asia, including in regions like Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore.
Disclaimer: The content of this article is only the personal opinion of the interviewees, does not represent the views of WuBlockchain, and does not endorse any tokens.
The audio transcription is done by GPT and may contain errors. Please listen to the complete podcast:
YouTube: https://youtu.be/_lUW_57XfpI
Reason for Entering the Industry and Zach’s Personal Background
Colin Wu: Zach, first of all, could you briefly introduce your upbringing or family background?
Zach Witkoff: I was born in New York City and raised by my parents, Steve and Lauren, who are both incredibly hardworking. I grew up in a family real estate business environment and spent almost all my time at various construction sites. It was during this time that I observed many inefficiencies within the traditional financial system. At that point, there was no concept of cryptocurrency, but it sparked my interest in “how to improve this system.”
Colin Wu: How did you first get into the crypto industry? Was there a key moment, or a particular person, who influenced you to transition from the family business to blockchain?
Zach Witkoff: As for Zak’s starting point, you’d have to ask him directly. As for me, I began investing in the crypto space around 2016, 2017. World Liberty was my first real involvement in operating a crypto business. A big part of why I got into the space was because I personally saw several friends of mine have their bank accounts closed and their platforms banned, and I went through similar situations myself. These real-life experiences became the true catalyst for my entry into the crypto industry.
The Origins and Early Development of the World Liberty Project
Zach Witkoff: About two years ago, I was sitting with Don and Eric, and they were feeling down. I asked what had happened, and they told me that their accounts were “terminated” by two of the largest banks in the U.S., and they had also been “banned” from platforms.
So, we started discussing solutions, and the conclusion was that we needed a more democratized system, with a focus on stablecoins. With stablecoins, essentially no one can tell you “your account is closed” (unless you’re listed on the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list). No one can dictate who you can send money to, why you send it, or how you send it. The origin of World Liberty was to truly return financial control to the users.
Colin Wu: I heard that in 2024, before the elections, you initially raised funds in Asia, but it wasn’t easy at the start. We also saw Justin Sun had a significant impact. How do you view your cooperation with Justin Sun?
Zach Witkoff: We have great respect for Justin. We are friends with him. He has built a remarkable business on Tron; as of my last check, there’s about $82 billion worth of stablecoins on Tron. We think he’s done a great job with his business, and we have a friendly relationship with him. That’s basically the nature of the relationship. I think Zak might be able to add something here.
Zak Folkman: Hello, I’m Zak Folkman, the COO and founder of World Liberty Financial. When I was in law school, I learned a lot about contracts and transactions. When I read the Ethereum whitepaper, I realized that Ethereum and smart contracts would fundamentally change everything from finance to technology and global legal transactions, enabling two parties to transact without needing to meet or even trust each other. Once I understood this, I immediately threw myself into it.
My co-founder, Chase Hero, and I have been long-time business partners. We were early and heavy investors in Ethereum, then Bitcoin. In the early stages of ICOs, we consulted for many successful startup projects and invested through our family office. To date, we’ve been involved in numerous projects, both in investment and consulting. As for Justin Sun, he’s a long-time friend of ours, and as everyone knows, he has had great success and a strong reputation in the industry. We are fortunate to call him a friend. We share many mutual friends, and we’ve known him for a long time. He has always been a strong supporter of the project. He’s an incredible person and a visionary in the cryptocurrency space.
How World Liberty Helps Users Without Bank Accounts ?
Colin Wu: So, the next question is, could you introduce World Liberty’s current products, especially how they help users, particularly those without bank accounts?
Zak Folkman: I think the goal of World Liberty Financial is to provide people with financial transaction tools while preventing them from being terminated by banks. But more importantly, we aim to provide financial tools to those who are underbanked or completely unbanked, while also ensuring that they get more value from these services compared to traditional financial institutions. I think people watching your channel may already believe that cryptocurrency offers a faster, more transparent, more secure, and cheaper way of transacting.
That’s why we all love cryptocurrency. Combine this with the concept of asset self-sovereignty or self-custody, and you get something that’s never been possible before. When you think of cryptocurrency, it’s always been viewed as something separate from the traditional financial system. Historically, if you wanted to use cryptocurrency at a store, gas station, to buy groceries, or even get a coffee, it was usually very difficult. While some exchanges have introduced debit cards, their effectiveness has been far from ideal.
Our goal is to provide a simple application, similar to Cash App, WeChat, or any Venmo, that allows users to easily store and send funds, while also integrating cryptocurrency transactions such as swaps, staking, yield farming, etc. We aim to provide users with a simple card that they can use to spend cryptocurrency at points of sale anytime and anywhere, making traditional bank accounts completely unnecessary. Therefore, we realized that if people are going to engage in cryptocurrency transactions daily, they need a stablecoin that is usable globally and always pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar. For this purpose, we launched USD1, which has become the fastest-growing stablecoin in history.
Zach Witkoff: As Zak mentioned, our USD1 is the fastest-growing stablecoin, and we’ve now surpassed $2.4 billion. The last time I checked, our 24-hour trading volume exceeded $500 million, and USD1 has only been around for 90 days. Besides stablecoins, as Zak mentioned, we are actively building a very powerful asset tokenization platform focused on RWA (Real World Asset tokenization). Both Zak and I come from traditional real estate backgrounds, with strong portfolios in real estate investments, and these assets are very well-suited for tokenization. I believe this is a very exciting space and definitely worth exploring.
But we won’t stop there. We are also exploring the oil and gas industry, as well as the broader commodities sector. Our belief is that World Liberty wants every asset in the world to be tokenized. It’s a better technology, and it’s a better system.
Misunderstanding About USD1 Stablecoin’s Partnership with Binance
Colin Wu: You mentioned the USD1 stablecoin. The community says there’s a significant partnership between USD1 and Binance, as well as with the BNB Chain. Is that true? When did Binance get involved, and how do they support USD1? We also know that Binance provided funding for USD1. Why did they choose to back USD1?
Zak Witkoff: Actually, this is a common misconception. We’re not saying that Binance owns shares in World Liberty, nor are we partners. The partnership mainly exists because there is strong demand for USD1 on Binance. If you go to PancakeSwap or on the BNB Chain, you’ll see strong demand for USD1. People naturally pair USD1 with meme coins there, and it’s even used via the Binance Launchpad platform. So, Binance is primarily providing services based on user demand. As for the $2 billion transaction, Binance simply accepted the funds but wasn’t a participant. We convinced MGX to use USD1 for the settlement because it’s safer, faster, and more transparent.
They completed a $2 billion transaction using USD1, with no transaction fees, and it was completed in less than two seconds. Clearly, this is a better way of transferring funds, especially for large international payments. So, what Binance did was simply accept the funds. If there had been no demand on Binance, they might have destroyed the funds or converted them into cash. But due to the massive market demand, the funds stayed on Binance.
Zak Folkman: Besides that, we actually have some amazing partnerships throughout the BSC ecosystem. Projects like ListaDAO, PancakeSwap, and nearly every protocol on Binance Smart Chain is very eager to collaborate with us. I believe that USD1 is not only the fastest-growing stablecoin but also the only stablecoin with a large and passionate following.
For example, projects like Sahara AI used USD1 as part of their IEO fundraising, and in fact, the majority of the funds they raised came through USD1. This shows that our community is very active, very engaged, and enjoys trading. As Zach mentioned earlier, our daily trading volume is so high because people are not just holding the token for the long term; they are actively using it. USD1’s circulation is very fast. Therefore, many projects on Binance Smart Chain want to partner with us because they know our project has extremely high user loyalty and a following similar to meme coins. And, we are a stablecoin.
This brings a very unique characteristic to the stablecoin market, something that no other stablecoin has probably ever had.
How the World Liberty Team Advances Their Work?
Colin Wu: My next question is, how many people are currently working at World Liberty, and how do you accelerate the team’s work?
Zak Folkman: We’re always recruiting. However, we’re not hiring just for the sake of hiring. We only bring in top-tier talent — absolute star employees.
So, every person we hire is a leader in their field, from our analysts, developers, to our Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel. For each position, we don’t look for someone to just “fill a vacancy,” but rather someone who can bring a unique perspective. This is why we’ve been able to achieve so much with such a lean team. We have about 30 full-time team members — maybe a bit more now, but roughly 30.
From our ecosystem managers and business development people to our senior management team, everyone is top talent, and that’s why we’ve been able to succeed so quickly while keeping our team small.
Zach Witkoff: Each of us wears multiple hats. There’s no task too big or too small at the company. I’m the CEO, Zak is the COO, and we both get involved in the most detailed tasks while also overseeing the largest projects.
I think this is very crucial. We believe that the most successful companies in the future will need to have lean teams, especially as technologies like AI become more widely applied. Personally, I believe that in five years, companies with over a thousand employees will become extremely difficult to run efficiently. The trend in the future is towards more efficient labor.
How ALT5 Sigma Helps the World Liberty Ecosystem?
Colin Wu: The next question is about ALT5 Sigma. It’s now very popular as a publicly listed company under World Liberty. Could you explain in detail about this company and how ALT5 helps the World Liberty ecosystem?
Zach Witkoff: Regarding ALT5, we announced a deal where they will acquire $1.5 billion worth of World Liberty tokens. This transaction will help our ecosystem in multiple ways. First, the company has some very strong technology, especially around stablecoin technology, which will help amplify the flywheel effect of USD1.
Secondly, the company’s current financial strategy is focused on long-term holding, and they are actively supporting this token. We’re bringing it to Nasdaq and allowing it to trade freely. In the future, the company plans to continue acquiring more tokens. So, obviously, having a big buyer in the market who is continually purchasing tokens and supporting it is very beneficial for the ecosystem. We’re really excited about it. I will join the board as Chairman, and Zach will join as a board observer. We’ll roll up our sleeves and work together.
What Positive Impact Will Trump’s Policies Have on the Entire Crypto Industry?
Colin Wu: My next question is, we know that President Trump’s election really helped the crypto world a lot. What are your thoughts on Trump’s crypto policies? How do you think his policies will positively impact the entire crypto industry and its future?
Zach Witkoff: First, I want to say that we keep business and politics separate. We are a business and do not get involved in political matters. However, it’s clear that President Trump is one of the greatest presidents in history. He proposed clear regulatory policies and established clear rules. Therefore, these policies are very beneficial for the industry.
Throughout the entire development of cryptocurrency, especially during the Biden administration, we were essentially operating in the dark. Many businesses moved overseas because it made no sense to operate crypto businesses in the U.S.; it was just not worth the risk. It was absurd. So, President Trump signed the Genius Act. I believe that the market structure will become much clearer in the future. Also, I have great respect and admiration for the entire government team. I think they did an excellent job.
Zak Folkman: To add on, I believe that what we previously saw in the crypto industry, at least in the U.S., was a divide between the two political parties. To really appreciate the incredible work President Trump did, he completely bridged the gap between the two parties within the industry. He made everyone come to a consensus, completely setting aside their political beliefs.
So, if you look at his role in advancing the industry, especially outside of the U.S., he made governments around the world start adopting and reflecting the policies implemented by his administration. I believe that all crypto industry participants worldwide, or those who will benefit from crypto but haven’t realized it yet, should offer him sincere gratitude.
Will World Liberty Hold More Activities or Community Building in Asia?
Colin Wu: I have one last question. Will World Liberty be doing more activities or community building in Asia, especially in the Chinese community?
Zak Folkman: Yes, we actually are traveling. Next week, some members of our team and I will be heading to Hong Kong to meet with many different participants in the crypto space, investors, and potential partners.
Then, Zach, the rest of our team, and I will be heading to Korea for Korean Blockchain Week. I believe we will be making a very significant announcement at Korean Blockchain Week.
Zach Witkoff: Next, we will also be making a bigger announcement at Token 2049 in Singapore, where we’ll be on the main stage. So, we have many big announcements and initiatives to roll out, and I believe the global community will be very excited about these updates.
Colin Wu: Yes, over the next two months, Asia will host many conferences. The schedule is packed with events for the upcoming months.
Zak Folkman: We are clearly a U.S.-based company, and all of our members are U.S. citizens. However, we also recognize that the major markets for the global crypto industry are in Asia. We have many friends and partners in Asia.
Across various regions in Asia, there are a large number of World Liberty Financial token holders. Therefore, we’ve spent a lot of time there, and as World Liberty continues to grow, we will continue to spend more time in Asia in the future.
So, thank you to all our friends in Asia who have supported us. We are very grateful for all your support, and we will make as many trips to Asia as possible, looking forward to meeting more of you in Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, or anywhere else.
Zach Witkoff: I think this is one of the greatest joys of founding World Liberty. Sometimes, Zak, Chase, and I will be walking down the street, and we’ll run into members of our community who say, “Oh my God, thank you so much, this is the best community.” It really makes every day special for us. Actually, this is the reason we do what we do — to provide people with tools that help them live better and happier lives.
As Zak mentioned, dear community, we really love you all. If you see us in Asia, be sure to come say hi; we’re very down-to-earth. We may fly five to six hundred hours a year, and we believe it’s very important to fly around the world, understand local issues, and come up with the right solutions. So yes, we’ll continue to work hard for the community, for the project, and for World Liberty. I believe the community will be very happy with the results we achieve.
Reason for Entering the Industry and Zach’s Personal Background (0:00–1:54)
The Origins and Early Development of the World Liberty Project (2:12–6:14)
How World Liberty Helps Users Without Bank Accounts (6:14–10:05)
Misunderstanding About USD1 Stablecoin’s Partnership with Binance (10:06–13:43)
How the World Liberty Team Advances Their Work (13:43–15:55)
How ALT5 Sigma Helps the World Liberty Ecosystem (15:55–17:31)
What Positive Impact Will Trump’s Policies Have on the Entire Crypto Industry (17:31–20:05)
Will World Liberty Hold More Activities or Community Building in Asia (20:05–23:29)
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