In the rapidly morphing landscape of global finance and power, a new axis is quietly being constructed not with missiles or trade wars, but with code, coins, and covert deals. At the centre of this shadowy financial revolution lies World Liberty Financial (WLF), a private digital currency venture whose flagship product, USD1, is emerging as one of the most geopolitically potent stablecoins in circulation. This isn’t just another tech story or an evolution of fintech, it’s the convergence of diplomacy, crypto-finance, and geopolitical statecraft, architected under the veiled sponsorship of the Trump family.
With Donald Trump’s political comeback, his direct family connections reportedly holding a 60% stake in WLF have transformed what was once an obscure crypto play into a powerful tool of American influence. The cast of characters behind this new financial empire includes Zach Witkoff, co-founder of WLF and son of Trump’s Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff, who has been globe-trotting to secure deals in strategic nations, including the UAE and Pakistan.
One such deal struck in early 2025 involved a large-scale agreement in Islamabad for USD1-backed investment in Pakistan’s rare earth minerals sector. Facilitated under diplomatic channels, this crypto-for-minerals pact is more than economic, it is strategic. For Pakistan, USD1 represents an off-ramp from IMF debt dependency, FATF scrutiny, and traditional banking isolation. For WLF, it is an opportunity to embed U.S. influence in a region that sits at the nexus of Chinese Belt and Road ambitions and Taliban-era narco networks.
This new model upends the post-Bretton Woods paradigm. USD1 is backed not by speculative crypto mining but by short-term U.S. Treasury securities amid other assets including but not limited to cash, thus anchoring it in the trust of the dollar system while enabling private actors to trade in digital dollars that exist beyond the reach of Federal Reserve oversight and SWIFT network constraints. This subtle manoeuvre achieves two foundational goals for the United States.
First, it dilutes the leverage that foreign sovereigns ,especially China and Japan, hold through their massive U.S. Treasury reserves. As WLF and other similar private actors accumulate Treasury securities to back their coins, the ownership of U.S. debt begins to decentralise from foreign state actors to politically aligned private hands. Over time, the geopolitical risk of foreign reserve liquidation decreases.
Second, this mechanism manufactures fresh demand for U.S. debt at a time when Treasury yields are spiking and over $7 trillion in U.S. debt is set to be refinanced. Instead of relying on Federal Reserve intervention through traditional quantitative easing or sovereign buyers like Saudi Arabia or Japan, the U.S. can now count on stablecoins backed by Treasuries to quietly and continuously absorb issuance. The higher the adoption of these digital dollars, the stronger the built-in liquidity circuit for short-term Treasury bills. Private crypto is becoming the buyer of last resort in a leveraged U.S. debt ecosystem.
However, the deeper transformation lies in how these instruments sidestep traditional financial architecture altogether. USD1 is not processed through SWIFT, nor is it reconciled through the Federal Reserve’s payment settlement systems. It operates through private custodians, blockchain rails, and decentralized smart contracts, creating a new class of digital dollar liquidity that is immune to cross-border capital controls, sanctions enforcement, or IMF-mandated disclosures. This makes USD1 particularly attractive for countries under diplomatic gray zones, or actors needing to mask financial flows.
How Trump’s Cryptocurrency Adventure benefits Pakistan
For Pakistan, which has long navigated between Saudi, Chinese, and American pressures, the WLF channel is a godsend. It allows the Pakistani elite, especially the military-industrial complex under General Asim Munir, to move funds, pay for drones, or secure inputs for their narco-linked rare earth industries, all without having to face the wrath of traditional regulators. This crypto-financed diplomacy model is eerily reminiscent of Cold War-era covert financing, except now the money moves not in briefcases but in wallets, not by hand but by hash.
On April 26th, 2025, just days after a major terrorist attack in Pahalgam, India, carried out by Pakistan-based groups, executives from World Liberty Financial (WLF), led by Zach Witkoff, arrived in Islamabad for what would become a highly controversial and geopolitically sensitive agreement. Meeting with Bilal Bin Saqib and senior members of Pakistan’s nascent Crypto Council, the WLF delegation inked a landmark deal aimed at embedding stablecoin-backed infrastructure deep within the country’s financial and strategic apparatus.
The agreement, framed publicly as a push to modernize Pakistan’s economy through blockchain innovation, includes commitments to build national-level blockchain architecture, integrate the USD1 stablecoin into cross-border trade and remittance corridors, establish regulatory sandboxes, and tokenize real-world assets such as real estate and mineral resources.
However, beneath this veneer of fintech advancement lies a much darker subtext. WLF’s delegation did not limit its engagements to civilian leaders. Notably, it included high-level meetings with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and, more ominously, with Army Chief General Asim Munir signalling that the stablecoin initiative is not merely economic, but deeply enmeshed with Pakistan’s powerful military-intelligence complex.
The concern is that the integration of USD1 may be weaponized, offering Pakistan’s deep state a digital escape route from the oversight mechanisms imposed by the IMF, FATF, and global banking norms. With anonymized transactions occurring outside SWIFT and beyond the purview of traditional AML/KYC frameworks, the blockchain rails that power USD1 could evolve into a system ideally suited for laundering narcotics proceeds, financing arms for proxy networks, and routing terrorism-related funding under a cloak of technical legitimacy.
In this model, remittances from the Pakistani diaspora, instead of flowing transparently through the formal banking system, could be diverted into opaque state-linked wallets. Profits from the opium pipelines of Balochistan or covert arms purchases made on behalf of jihadist actors could circulate via cryptographic transactions, bypassing regulatory flags. This creates an unregulated, privatized financial corridor with plausible deniability mimicking historic patterns of covert financing seen during the Cold War, where intelligence agencies like the CIA funded proxy conflicts through narcotics and arms sales. But what’s new here is the digital layer: the rails are faster, harder to trace, and politically insulated by the very architecture of stablecoins backed by U.S. Treasuries.
The danger is not merely hypothetical. Intelligence-linked financial flows that once moved through black-market couriers or numbered Swiss accounts could now transit through stablecoin ecosystems masquerading as innovation. Whether it’s laundering money from Colombia’s cocaine trade, enabling arms deals in Syria, or sustaining Pakistan’s terror-industrial complex, USD1 under the guise of financial modernization may end up underwriting the very instability that U.S. foreign policy claims to fight. Although the GENIUS Act likely to be passed by the U.S. Congress aims to regulate stablecoins under a federal framework, private actors like WLF, especially those with close ties to political power centres, could still operate with enough ambiguity to shield sensitive transactions. In many cases, such flows may not just evade oversight they may be sanctioned, quietly, as part of covert diplomatic or intelligence objectives.
The Islamabad deal, while dressed in the language of development and digital progress, is a case study in how stablecoin diplomacy and tokenized finance can serve as the velvet glove for steel-fisted operations. It is a clear warning that the battle for financial control in the age of crypto will not merely be fought in boardrooms or parliaments but also in the backchannels of military corridors, proxy networks, and encrypted wallets.
How USD1 helps the USA counter China
This strategic move also offers Washington an effective counter to China’s expanding digital empire. For years, Beijing has built up its eCNY initiative, launching pilot programs across Asia and Africa and integrating its Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) into Belt and Road transactions. The goal is to establish a yuan-based alternative to the dollar-backed financial order and eventually decouple from SWIFT. But the U.S., by enabling stablecoins like USD1, has deployed a counter-weapon: Treasury-backed liquidity with dollar trust and digital agility.
Countries in Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East that were tempted by the convenience of eCNY for cross-border trade now face a credible, yield-bearing, and more liquid dollar alternative. And because WLF and similar entities are private yet politically aligned, the U.S. government can plausibly deny oversight while still shaping the strategic flows. This model is quickly becoming a blueprint for the new financial Cold War, a digital duel between authoritarian fintech sovereignty and capitalist crypto influence.
But WLF’s ambitions don’t stop at replacing yuan corridors. As Washington pivots to enforce new alignment terms with its allies, access to Treasury-backed stablecoins is becoming a form of geopolitical leverage. If countries want to trade with the United States, access U.S. capital markets, or use American technology, they may be required to decouple from Chinese supply chains and integrate into U.S.-approved digital payment ecosystems. In other words, dollar liquidity via USD1 and others will now come with conditions. This approach flips the traditional sanctions model. Instead of punishing adversaries by blocking SWIFT access, the U.S. now incentivizes allies by offering participation in a programmable dollar economy that comes with yield, anonymity, and optional oversight. This is soft power through stablecoins.
Yet, there is a sinister undercurrent. The very features that make USD1 a powerful diplomatic tool of privacy, portability, and independence from central banking also make it a potent weapon for rogue regimes and clandestine operators. In the shadows, intelligence agencies and proxy militias can deploy Treasury-backed stablecoins to fund operations without triggering alarms. Narco dollars from Helmand province, proceeds from arms deals in Sahel, or terror logistics across Pakistan could all be laundered through this ecosystem. Political cover, combined with a UST-backing facade, creates the illusion of legitimacy. Unlike Bitcoin or Monero, USD1 carries the prestige of the U.S. Treasury but avoids the visibility of the Federal Reserve. This makes it uniquely suited for gray-zone warfare, proxy conflict financing, and intelligence laundering. It’s not just a coin, it’s a cloak.
What are the implications of USD1?
The implications are staggering. If WLF’s USD1, and similar Treasury-backed stablecoins, become the default digital dollars in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and parts of Latin America, then the U.S. will effectively control a parallel monetary system, one that exists alongside but outside the Bretton Woods institutions. No need for IMF bailouts. No need for SWIFT arbitration. Just direct digital diplomacy. In this new paradigm, financial sovereignty becomes programmable.
Nations that comply with U.S. security imperatives and supply chain preferences will have access to liquidity, while those that drift toward China or flirt with adversarial networks may find themselves digitally dollar-starved. It’s a softer form of coercion, one masked in fintech innovation and sold under the banner of decentralisation. But make no mistake, it is centralisation of power through code.
For Donald Trump and his inner circle, this model is not just economic policy, it is legacy architecture. Through WLF, the Trump Administration is laying the groundwork for a post-presidency geopolitical business model where private entities wield state-like influence. By marrying the credibility of the U.S. Treasury with the deniability of private crypto, they are building a financial empire that transcends election cycles and constitutional limits.
This is statecraft by other means, and in many ways, it is more enduring than treaties or tariffs. While the Biden administration may have struggled to curtail China’s financial aggression through traditional instruments, Trump’s return is rewriting the playbook altogether. USD1 is not just a token; it is the emblem of a new American imperialism decentralized, digitized, and deniable.
Meanwhile, nations like India, Russia, and the Gulf states are carefully watching this evolution, seeking to balance their strategic autonomy in a world that is quickly becoming bifurcated. The global order is no longer unipolar, it is multi-polar with transactional intermediaries. On one side, China’s state-dominated yuan sphere promises discipline and infrastructure; on the other, America’s crypto-dollar bloc offers liquidity and stealth. In between lie the nations, companies, and networks that trade allegiance for tokens, access for alignment, and sovereignty for programmable liquidity. The age of neutral money is over. The dollar is no longer just a currency, it is a political weapon embedded in code. And in this emerging battlefield, it is not just central banks or finance ministers who matter but wallet holders, crypto envoys, and private stablecoin issuers backed by presidential power.
As the digital transformation accelerates, we are entering an era where financial decisions are made not in Basel or Washington but in blockchain nodes and DAO protocols. Yet beneath the surface of decentralisation lies an unmistakable pattern of re-centralisation. WLF’s USD1 is not the democratisation of finance, it is its militarisation. Backed by U.S. Treasuries and driven by geopolitical intent, it binds capital to policy in ways never seen before. In the name of innovation, we are constructing the most strategically curated payment system in history one that could reshape alliances, reorder trade, and dictate the flow of capital and conflict.
Ultimately, the choice for nations is stark: either embrace the programmable dollar and the conditions it brings, or risk being swept into the rival networks of authoritarian finance. There is no neutral ground in the coming digital realignment. Crypto is no longer just a market, it is a battleground. And stablecoins like USD1 are its elite units. The next great power struggle won’t be fought with warships or aircraft carriers. It will be fought with custody wallets, UST liquidity, and digital coins disguised as diplomacy. We are not witnessing a monetary evolution, we are living through a sovereign mutation. The age of digital mercenaries has begun.
Note: This article on USD1 and the Trump Agenda has been authored by Navroop Singh, an advocate by profession. He takes a keen interest on Geopolitics and matters of International Relations. He is the author of ‘The Great Reset’ and the co-author of ‘The New Global Order’.
