HTX, the crypto exchange associated with TRON founder Justin Sun, is suspending support for USD1 after World Liberty Financial, the Trump family-linked crypto project behind the stablecoin, froze specific HTX-linked wallet addresses.
The exchange said in a Saturday post on X that the freeze followed sanctions compliance reviews and affected WLFI assets tied to those addresses.
- WLFI is World Liberty's governance token, while USD1 is its dollar-backed stablecoin, so the exchange paused trading in both assets before moving to convert user USD1 balances into Tether's USDT.
Because both tokens are issued by the WLFI team, HTX said it also suspended WLFI/USDT, USD1/USDT, BTC/USD1 and ETH/USD1 trading pairs to "mitigate potential risks, safeguard user assets, and maintain a fair trading environment."
The exchange then said that it would also delist USD1 on June 7 and convert eligible user USD1 balances into USDT at a 1-to-1 ratio.
- For USD1, HTX was an early venue and promoted the asset quite hard. It launched USD1/USDT with zero fees starting May 6, 2025, and later said it was the first platform to list USD1 and support TRON-chain USD1 deposits, plus BTC/USD1 and ETH/USD1 pairs
A fight over frozen WLFI
The freeze is part of a longer fight between World Liberty and Sun, one of the project's largest early backers.
World Liberty Financial, a crypto project tied to the Trump family, previously counted Sun as both an investor and adviser. Reuters reported in April that Sun had invested at least $75 million in WLFI before later publicly accusing the project of secretly adding a "backdoor blacklisting function" that could freeze user tokens and suing World Liberty Financial in California.
- World Liberty denied wrongdoing and later countersued Sun for defamation in Florida, accusing him of making false claims after the project froze assets allegedly tied to prohibited transfers, straw purchases and short sales of WLFI.
The unclear part of the freeze
World Liberty's own risk disclosures say the project can block wallet addresses and freeze WLFI tokens it determines are tied to illegal activity or violations of token terms. Separate USD1 disclosures also say BitGo or WLFI-related parties may block transfers to and from some addresses and freeze related USD1 in certain cases.
HTX is treating the freeze as a direct risk to its exchange markets, saying WLFI's action affected assets linked to specific HTX on-chain addresses and pushed it to halt WLFI and USD1 trading pairs before later removing USD1 entirely.
- The statement doesn't make it clear though whether the frozen assets belonged to the exchange itself, its users or other counterparties.
In late May, the UK also sanctioned Huobi Global S.A., now known as HTX, under its Russia sanctions regime, The Coinformer reported. HTX has denied allegations tied to Russian illicit finance and said it follows regulatory frameworks globally.