World Liberty Financial, the Trump family-backed cryptocurrency venture, has partnered with Hong Kong-based AI platform WorldClaw to accept its USD1 stablecoin as payment for access to 90 artificial intelligence models, according to Reuters reporting. Forty-three of those models were developed by Chinese companies including Alibaba, Baidu, Z.ai, DeepSeek and Moonshot, several of which U.S. authorities have flagged or restricted over national-security or technology concerns.
The Trump family owns 38 percent of World Liberty Financial. Ryan Fang, an executive at World Liberty, serves as an external adviser to WorldClaw. Reuters said the collaboration itself is not illegal and could not determine the financial terms between the two companies.
World Liberty Financial launched in June 2024 as a decentralized finance platform backed by the Trump family and Bankrupt crypto entrepreneur Marc Lore. The venture raised capital at a reported valuation of $5 billion and has pursued stablecoin and lending products. USD1, its stablecoin offering, entered circulation in 2025 and is designed for payments and transfers within the World Liberty ecosystem.
WorldClaw aggregates access to third-party AI models through a single interface. The platform operates from Hong Kong, which sits outside direct U.S. regulatory jurisdiction but maintains ties to U.S. technology policy through trade and export-control frameworks. Alibaba, Baidu and DeepSeek have all faced U.S. scrutiny: the Commerce Department imposed restrictions on Alibaba Cloud in 2024 over semiconductor concerns; Baidu operates within China's regulatory system; DeepSeek faced questions from U.S. lawmakers over its rapid advancement and Chinese backing; Moonshot is a Chinese AI startup.
The partnership places a Trump-aligned financial venture in a direct transaction chain with restricted technology providers. No sanctions violations have been alleged, and Reuters confirmed the arrangement appears to operate within legal bounds. The absence of disclosed financial terms leaves unclear whether World Liberty or its stablecoin are receiving revenue, equity or other consideration from the arrangement.
World Liberty Financial has pursued aggressive scaling of its stablecoin and product ecosystem since launch. The USD1 stablecoin had accumulated minimal adoption in retail or institutional channels as of mid-2026 and remains far smaller than competing offerings from Circle and Paxos. Adding a payment pathway through WorldClaw expands the use cases for the token but ties it to a venue offering access to models subject to U.S. technology restrictions.
The collaboration sits at the intersection of cryptocurrency adoption and U.S. technology policy toward China. Multiple U.S. agencies enforce restrictions on AI model distribution and computational access to Chinese entities; the State Department, Commerce Department and Treasury all maintain separate authorities over technology exports and foreign investment in sensitive sectors. No announcement from any U.S. regulator has addressed this specific partnership arrangement.
