Trump-backed crypto firm is planning stablecoin audit, new app

By Michelle Conlin

(Reuters) -Zak Folkman, the co-founder of U.S. President Donald Trump's cryptocurrency platform World Liberty Financial, said on Wednesday that the company will issue an audit of its stablecoin "within days" and that it planned a new app.

Folkman also hinted that WLF's governance token, known as WLFI, could soon become tradable in an interview at the Permissionless conference on Wednesday, organized by crypto media company Blockworks in Brooklyn, New York.

WLFI, which was launched two months before the U.S. presidential election in November by Trump and his business partners, has yielded hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the Republican president's family business.

The business, along with other forays into crypto, has drawn a barrage of criticism from Democratic lawmakers, as well as government ethics watchdogs. Critics say it creates conflicts of interest as it is happening at the same time as the president is pulling back enforcement and easing regulations on the industry.

The Trump Organization said in January that the president's investments, assets and business interests would be held in a trust managed by his children.

The White House and the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

World Liberty has raised the money by selling so-called governance tokens, which give holders the right to vote on changes to the project’s underlying code and to signal their opinion on its direction and plans. They cannot be traded.

During the interview on Wednesday, when Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz asked whether the token would become tradable, Folkman said, "I don't want to give away too much, but if you pay attention over the next couple of weeks, I think everyone ... is going to be very, very happy."

Folkman said WLF would also be launching an app that would make crypto seamless for everyday investors to use.

He said the company's stablecoin recently just got its first attestation report from an accounting firm and that it would be posted on its website "within the next few days."

"We're going to have very transparent auditing from a financial level," he said.

(Michelle Conlin in New YorkEditing by Marguerita Choy)

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