Trump-Backed Crypto Firm Tied to Sanctioned Chinese AI Models

A cryptocurrency project backed by U.S. President Donald Trump's family has been linked to a Hong Kong AI platform that offers models from Chinese developers, some of whom are subject to U.S. sanctions or security concerns.

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the cryptocurrency firm, is connected to Worldklaw, an AI platform based in Hong Kong.

The controversy centers around the payment method, as Worldklaw supports USD1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial. This has raised concerns about conflicts of interest and national security issues.

One of the Chinese developers mentioned is Alibaba, which was designated by the U.S. Department of Defense as a military-linked company. Baidu, another developer, is also on this list. Z.ai is on the U.S. Commerce Department's restricted trade list, with officials viewing it as potentially able to strengthen China's military capabilities.

Worldklaw has secured over 10,000 users and processes more than 50 million requests per day, citing lower costs of Chinese AI models as a factor behind user growth.