Trump’s family crypto feud spills into customer accounts after wallet freeze
HTX will permanently delist World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin and convert eligible retail USD1 balances into USDT at 1:1 starting June 7. The move follows World Liberty’s freeze of several HTX-controlled blockchain addresses, which HTX says held ordinary customer funds, not illicit capital. HTX also suspended WLFI/USDT, USD1/USDT, BTC/USD1, and ETH/USD1 trading pairs to protect users and avoid systemic risk. The dispute reflects wider tension between offshore exchanges and US-aligned stablecoin issuers using protocol-level freezes to enforce sanctions. World Liberty appears to have acted after UK sanctions targeted infrastructure tied to Russian crypto evasion, including Huobi Global S.A. HTX rejects any link to that sanctioned entity and says the freezes were an overreach harming retail users. USD1, launched in late 2024, already has more than $4.6 billion in circulation. The case highlights how stablecoin compliance tools can trigger broad market disruption when applied to exchange-wide balances.
