HTX Delists Trump-Backed USD1 Stablecoin as Sanctions Feud Escalates

The dispute did not end there. It has already spilled into court, with both sides pursuing legal action against each other , transforming a compliance-driven disagreement into a formal commercial rupture.

A partnership turned sour

The severity of the break is best understood in the context of the firms' previous relationship. HTX was a foundational partner for WLFI from the project's early days. It was the first major exchange globally to list the USD1 stablecoin in May 2025 and the first to launch trading for the WLFI governance token in September 2025 . The two further deepened their ties in August 2025 when HTX became a launch partner for WLFI's USD1 Points Program, a loyalty initiative built around the stablecoin .

This history made the delisting particularly significant—not just as a loss of liquidity for USD1 and WLFI, but as a signal of how quickly geopolitical sanctions can unravel even established crypto partnerships.

Broader context for WLFI and USD1

The HTX sanctions conflict arrived during an already turbulent period for World Liberty Financial. In late February 2026, the USD1 stablecoin briefly fell from its $1 peg to approximately $0.994—a deviation of about 0.6%—before recovering . WLFI characterized the episode as a "coordinated attack," stating that cofounder social media accounts were hacked, influencers were paid to spread doubt, and short positions were opened against the WLFI token .

Separately, WLFI faced scrutiny in April 2026 over its lending model. Reports detailed how the WLFI treasury deposited billions of WLFI tokens as collateral on the Dolomite lending platform to borrow stablecoins, a practice that drew criticism and contributed to the WLFI token price falling to an all-time low of approximately $0.077 .

Despite the HTX delisting, USD1 continued to grow elsewhere. In May 2026, Binance announced it would launch a USD1/BTC perpetual futures pair, enabling traders to use USD1 as collateral and settlement currency . The stablecoin had also reached a market capitalization of roughly $4.7 billion in Q1 2026, up 50% from the previous quarter .