UFC to pay fighters in Trump family stablecoin at White House event

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced Friday it will pay bonuses to fighters in cryptocurrency issued by the Trump family business World Liberty Financial at a highly publicized White House mixed martial arts event scheduled for Sunday.

The development links the Trump family’s financial interests to the high-profile UFC competition being promoted on government property. The event on the White House’s south lawn is scheduled for June 14, Trump’s birthday.

The UFC said some fighters will receive bonuses in World Liberty Financial’s cryptocurrency, known as “stablecoins,” whose value is pegged to the U.S. dollar. World Liberty has named the currency “USD1.”

World Liberty is a venture of the Trump family and the family of Steven Witkoff, Trump’s friend and special envoy to the Middle East. The company is now listed as an “official sponsor” of UFC Freedom 250, the fight scheduled for Sunday. The use of its stablecoin in the fight appears to boost efforts to broaden its adoption.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle said there is no conflict of interest and that Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. “The Fake News’ continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the public’s distrust in what they read,” Ingle said.

The fight is not linked to Freedom 250, a separate organization promoting the 250th anniversary of the United States.

World Liberty Financial, a Delaware-based cryptocurrency venture co-founded by Donald Trump and his sons in 2024 alongside the Witkoff sons, has emerged as one of the highest-profile businesses connected to the president’s family.

At one point, Trump was publicly listed by the company as its “Chief Crypto Advocate.”

His financial disclosure form lists his holdings in World Liberty Financial as “over $50m.”

Reuters reported this month that the Trump family’s crypto ventures, led by WLF, have generated billions of dollars in paper gains and become one of the largest sources of wealth tied to the president and his family.

World Liberty announced the company was creating a “bonus pool” for the event and quoted Zach Witkoff, Steve Witkoff’s son and CEO of World Liberty Financial. “We believe this is the future of finance, and we’re excited to partner with UFC,” Witkoff said, “which has done more than any organization to modernize the business of sports.”

World Liberty has faced controversies surrounding its digital “governance token,” a type of crypto it sold, and is in litigation with Justin Sun, a crypto tycoon who was an early buyer of the tokens. Sun sued the company this year alleging it improperly froze his tokens, and World Liberty countersued for defamation.

The USD1 stablecoins are separate from the tokens and are tradable digital assets backed by dollar reserves. The firm has also applied for a banking license from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

World Liberty Financial’s role in the festivities emerged only this week. The company first announced it was an official sponsor of the event on Wednesday, June 10 via X. The next day, Thursday, the UFC announced it was distributing bonuses to fighters in a separate cryptocurrency called CRO. Then on Friday at 9:30 p.m., the UFC issued a press release saying World Liberty Financial would be the “Presenting Partner of a new $250,000 Performance of the Night bonus pool.” The UFC revealed it would make those payments in USD1.

“This sounds like advertising,” Todd Phillips, a crypto expert at the Klaros Group, told the Guardian. “Paying the fighters in the USD1 stablecoin would have the same economic function as writing them a check, but announcing to the world they are doing it in USD1 sounds like they are advertising to the world that USD1 is out there and that it is connected to the UFC and the White House,” Phillips said.