{"id":7484,"date":"2026-06-16T00:01:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T00:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=7484"},"modified":"2026-06-16T00:01:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T00:01:35","slug":"ufc-fighters-at-the-white-house-got-trump-family-stablecoins-and-a-legal-gap-makes-it-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=7484","title":{"rendered":"UFC fighters at the White House got Trump family stablecoins\u2014and a legal gap makes it possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Trump\u2019s Ultimate Fighting Championship Freedom 250 spectacle on the White House South Lawn resulted in record bonuses for the winners. The fighters, though, didn\u2019t get paid in U.S. dollars, which would seem to be the obvious currency for such an event. Instead, the prize money came in the form of USD1, a type of synthetic dollar known as a stablecoin, that is run by the Trump family\u2019s cryptocurrency business, World Liberty Financial.<\/p>\n

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This arrangement created an ethics scenario that would otherwise be illegal for most federal officials and could be treated as a crime, said Richard Painter, a former chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a Treasury secretary had a financial interest in World Liberty and then participated in any government matter that had a knowing economic impact on World Liberty, that Treasury secretary very likely would commit a felony,\u201d Painter told Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Under the federal criminal statute 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 208, Painter noted, most executive branch employees are barred from taking part in official matters that clearly affect their own financial interests or those of close associates. The president, vice president, and members of Congress, however, are exempt.<\/p>\n

In Trump\u2019s case, that exemption allows him to take part in events that feature World Liberty Financial, which issues USD1. Stablecoins like USD1 are backed by cash and government debt, and their issuers earn interest on those reserves, turning every dollar held in tokens into a steady revenue stream.\u00a0<\/p>\n

World Liberty Financial was founded in 2024 by members of Trump\u2019s family and close business associates. Since its creation, it has become one of the most lucrative parts of the president\u2019s portfolio. According to the venture\u2019s \u201cgold paper,\u201d the co?founders include Trump, his three sons, Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff and Witkoff\u2019s two sons. The document notes that Trump and Witkoff were removed from the listed team after taking office.<\/p>\n

Despite Trump stepping back from the company\u2019s formal governance, his most recent financial disclosure released on Saturday shows he has made more than $57.3 million from sales of World Liberty\u2019s governance token. USD1, launched in 2025 and backed by cash, U.S. Treasuries, and other cash equivalents, now circulates in the billions of dollars, generating tens of millions a year for World Liberty from interest on the reserves that support the stablecoin.<\/p>\n

UFC did not immediately respond to Fortune<\/em>\u2019s questions about which fighters received USD1 payouts, or about how much they received.<\/p>\n

The White House did not immediately respond to questions from Fortune<\/em> about whether officials had evaluated potential conflicts of interest in allowing a Trump?linked stablecoin to be used at the event.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

#UFC #fighters #White #House #Trump #family #stablecoinsand #legal #gap<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump\u2019s Ultimate Fighting Championship Freedom 250 spectacle on the White House South Lawn resulted in record bonuses for the winners. The fighters, though, didn\u2019t get paid in U.S. dollars, which… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1307,665,6403,9767,2160,1338,989,1308,9768,260,9484,1337,1135],"class_list":["post-7484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-donald-trump","tag-family","tag-fighters","tag-gap","tag-house","tag-legal","tag-stablecoins","tag-stablecoinsand","tag-trump","tag-ufc","tag-white","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}