The borrowing pushed the USD1 pool to 93% utilization, meaning retail depositors who had lent USD1 to the pool expecting to withdraw at will could not do so until the loans were repaid. WLFI repaid $25 million of the position, then minted $25 million in fresh USD1 days later, actively managing the token’s supply through April. World Liberty Financial did not respond to a request for comment on the report.
World Liberty is also in litigation with Justin Sun, the crypto tycoon and early buyer of WLFI governance tokens, who sued the company, alleging it improperly froze his holdings. WLFI countersued for defamation.
Some observers said the commercial impact of Sunday’s event is straightforward.
“Paying the fighters in the USD1 stablecoin would have the same economic function as writing them a check,” Todd Phillips, a crypto expert at the Klaros Group, told The Guardian. “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.”
USD1’s circulating supply has grown to around $4.6 billion from $3.3 billion on Jan. 1.
The company has also applied for a banking license from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.