In a world where geopolitics and digital assets are increasingly intertwined, a curious detail has emerged that could shed light on hidden mechanisms of influence. World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a company affiliated with the family of the U.S. president, has found itself at the center of a controversial partnership with the Hong Kong-based service WorldClaw. The latter, as it turns out, provides access to models from Chinese developers that the U.S. administration had previously officially classified as threats to national security.
My analysis shows that the scale of the connection is striking: 43 of the 90 models available on WorldClaw are created by giants such as Alibaba, Baidu, and Z.ai. At the same time, the service does not shy away from American solutions either, including products from OpenAI and Anthropic. Payment for access to these tools is accepted in the USD1 stablecoin and other World Liberty tokens. The Trump family, which owns 38% of the project, earns income not only from sales but also from the circulation of these digital assets, including interest income on reserves backed by U.S. Treasury bonds.
Notably, the WorldClaw platform, launched in 2026, insists on its independence, claiming it is not controlled by World Liberty. However, as it turned out, WLFI's head of growth, Ryan Fang, served as an advisor to the service on USD1 integration and international expansion. The president's sons, co-founders of WLFI, actively promote the platform, and Donald Trump Jr. even promised WorldClaw contest winners a meeting at Mar-a-Lago. Eric Trump unabashedly calls this "the future of finance."
The Chinese trace and double standards
The use of Chinese AI solutions in the U.S. is legal, and they are cheaper than American counterparts. But some developers have fallen under sanctions restrictions. Alibaba and Baidu have been placed by the Pentagon on a list of companies linked to the Chinese military, and Z.ai has been added to the U.S. Commerce Department's Entity List for aiding the PRC's "military modernization." DeepSeek and Moonshot, also offered by WorldClaw, have previously been implicated in accusations of intellectual property theft. The companies deny all allegations, and Beijing calls the claims groundless.
Regulatory storm and banking ambitions
In parallel, another story is unfolding. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has given preliminary approval for the creation of a national trust bank, World Liberty Trust Company. This has drawn sharp criticism from Senator Elizabeth Warren, who called the approval "the most brazen case of self-enrichment in the history of the American financial system." She has announced legislation that would prohibit regulators from approving banking licenses for entities owned by the president or his family.
Seven experts surveyed agreed that such cooperation diverges from the administration's hawkish course. However, lawyer Peter Jaydel sees another interpretation: Trump's second term is marked by less intense pressure on China and a priority on business interests, into which this collaboration fits.
My assessment: This situation exposes a fundamental contradiction between declared national security policy and real financial interests. While regulators try to limit the influence of Chinese AI, the president's family monetizes access to it, creating a dangerous precedent of conflict of interest. Investors should closely monitor developments, as such "gray areas" could become a catalyst for new regulatory tightening that would hit the entire crypto market.