Trump-Backed World Liberty Financial Expands USD1 Stablecoin Through AI Platform With Chinese Tech Ties
World Liberty Financial partners with WorldClaw to enable USD1 stablecoin payments for AI model access, despite U.S. government restrictions on several Chinese AI firms represented on the platform.
Partnership Brings Stablecoin to AI Model Marketplace
World Liberty Financial, the Trump-backed cryptocurrency venture, is expanding adoption of its USD1 stablecoin through a collaboration with WorldClaw, a Hong Kong-based AI platform. According to Reuters, the companies are working together to enable WorldClaw users to pay for access to artificial intelligence models using World Liberty’s stablecoin, creating a new payment use case within the broader crypto ecosystem.
WorldClaw operates a marketplace featuring more than 90 AI models sourced from developers worldwide. The platform includes models from prominent U.S. technology companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as offerings from multiple Chinese AI firms. World Liberty executive Ryan Fang advises WorldClaw, and Trump family members have promoted the partnership publicly on social media.
Regulatory Complications From Chinese AI Company Involvement
The partnership has attracted scrutiny due to WorldClaw’s reliance on Chinese AI developers facing U.S. government restrictions. According to Reuters reporting, 43 of the platform’s 90 models come from Chinese companies including Alibaba, Baidu, Z.ai, DeepSeek, and Moonshot. Several of these firms have encountered regulatory action from U.S. authorities. Z.ai received placement on the Commerce Department’s Entity List in January 2025, restricting its access to American technology. The Pentagon designated both Alibaba and Baidu as “Chinese Military Companies Operating in the United States” in June, preventing the U.S. Department of Defense from transacting with them.
A World Liberty spokesperson responded to concerns by emphasizing WorldClaw’s independence and characterizing the inclusion of both Chinese and American AI models as standard industry practice among major U.S. technology firms. Alibaba disputed its military designation, describing it as “arbitrary and capricious” and signaling plans to pursue legal action against the classification.
Intellectual Property and Distillation Concerns
The arrangement emerges amid broader allegations regarding AI intellectual property protection. Anthropic accused multiple Chinese AI firms available on WorldClaw—including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax—of deploying fraudulent accounts to generate millions of Claude model exchanges through model distillation, a process where one AI system extracts knowledge from another’s outputs. In June, Anthropic called on Congress to strengthen export controls and institute penalties for large-scale model extraction, emphasizing that combating illicit distillation requires coordination between government and industry participants.
The specific financial terms and equity arrangements between World Liberty and WorldClaw remain undisclosed.
Source: Reuters, via Decrypt. Not financial advice.