World Liberty Financial, the DeFi project backed by President Donald Trump and his sons, will pay a portion of UFC fighter bonuses in its USD1 stablecoin at UFC Freedom 250, the event taking place Sunday on the South Lawn of the White House.

UFC President and CEO Dana White announced the partnership Friday at a press conference at the Lincoln Memorial. World Liberty will serve as presenting partner of the event's Performance of the Night bonus, adding $250,000 to be distributed in USD1, its dollar-pegged stablecoin, per Sporting News.

"We're proud to celebrate a historic night for UFC and the United States," said Zach Witkoff, co-founder and CEO of World Liberty Financial, in a statement. "A victory in Washington should mean money in your pocket immediately, not when the bank opens. USD1 makes U.S. dollars more accessible and faster than ever before."

The World Liberty pool is separate from a $1 million bonus pool denominated in Crypto.com's CRO token. Crypto.com and Ram Trucks are the event's official presenting sponsors; World Liberty holds the narrower role of presenting partner for the Performance of the Night award.

UFC Freedom 250 is headlined by a lightweight title unification bout between Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje, with former two-division champion Alex Pereira facing Ciryl Gane at heavyweight. Two Fight of the Night winners will each receive $400,000 and two Performance of the Night winners will each receive $425,000, bringing total fight-night bonuses to $1.65 million across four fighters, the largest in UFC history. 

The $250,000 contribution is small relative to both the event and World Liberty's operations. TKO Group Holdings COO Mark Shapiro told a Morgan Stanley conference that Freedom 250 carries a production budget above $60 million, roughly half of it offset by sponsorships, according to Yahoo Sports. USD1, meanwhile, has grown to roughly $4.4 billion in circulating supply, making it the sixth largest dollar-backed stablecoin by total supply, per The Block's data.

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The sponsorship extends World Liberty's push into combat sports. In December 2025, the project signed a memorandum of understanding with Mixed Martial Arts Group Limited to integrate USD1 into that company's on-chain ecosystem, with Donald Trump Jr. joining its strategic advisory board.

Conflict-of-interest concerns

The presence of World Liberty, a company in which the president and his family hold substantial financial interests, as a sponsor for an event on the grounds of the president's official residence, on his birthday, raises familiar conflict-of-interest concerns. 

World Liberty's disclosures show that 75% of WLFI token sale proceeds flow to a Trump-controlled entity, DT Marks DEFI LLC. A Reuters investigation published this month estimated the Trump family has earned at least $2.3 billion in profit across its four main crypto ventures since the start of Trump's second term, with World Liberty accounting for the largest share, while more than a million outside investors recorded collective net losses of roughly the same amount.

The USD1 stablecoin has been central to that scrutiny. An entity tied to UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan secretly acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty for a reported $500 million in a deal signed days before Trump's inauguration, and a separate Tahnoon-led firm, MGX, used USD1 to settle a $2 billion investment in Binance. The arrangements prompted a House probe into potential conflicts of interest and national security concerns, including over the timing of U.S. AI chip export approvals to the UAE.

The Trump family also holds a 20% stake in the mining firm American Bitcoin. The White House has said that Trump's assets are held in a trust managed by his children and has stated that no conflict of interest exists. 

USD1's regulatory backdrop

The sponsorship was announced as World Liberty works to formalize its stablecoin operations and bring them onshore. In January, affiliated entity World Liberty Trust Company filed a de novo application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a national trust bank purpose-built for stablecoin issuance, custody, and conversion, a move that would bring USD1 fully under federal supervision if approved.

Stablecoins in the U.S. are currently governed under the GENIUS Act, which Trump signed into law in July 2025. A separate crypto market structure bill, known as the Clarity Act, has faced hurdles in part over how to address the president's financial ties to World Liberty, with lawmakers from both parties pressing for ethics provisions.