Crypto exchange HTX will soon delist World Liberty Financial's USD1 stablecoin and convert eligible user holdings to Tether's USDT at a 1:1 ratio, the exchange announced Saturday. The move is the latest escalation in a standoff over the Trump-linked project's freezing of HTX-linked onchain addresses.
The delisting will take effect at 3:00 UTC on June 7. HTX had already suspended trading for the WLFI/USDT, USD1/USDT, BTC/USD1, and ETH/USD1 pairs as of 13:00 UTC on June 5, according to an earlier statement.
The exchange said the World Liberty Financial (WLFI) project team, which issues both the WLFI governance token and the USD1 stablecoin and is closely associated with the Trump family, had unilaterally frozen specific HTX onchain addresses citing sanctions compliance reviews.
"HTX believes that the WLFI project team's unilateral freezing of these addresses—conducted without sufficient prior communication, adequate contractual or legal grounds, transparent disclosure, or adherence to due process—directly infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of HTX users in their assets," the exchange wrote in a statement.
HTX spokesperson Molly Fu said on X that the affected assets "are not assets belonging to any sanctioned entity" but rather "assets legally purchased and owned by individual users." The exchange called on WLFI to immediately unfreeze the affected user assets.
The freeze follows the UK's May 26 sanctions designation of Huobi Global S.A. UK officials alleged the entity facilitated more than $1.5 billion in flows supporting Russian sanctions evasion through the A7 network and the Russia-linked Garantex exchange.
HTX maintains the sanctioned Huobi Global S.A. is a distinct entity from the online HTX platform, and that the UK designation has no impact on its operations or user funds.
The dispute marks at least the second high-profile use of WLFI's onchain freeze function. The Trump-linked project blacklisted Tron founder Justin Sun's wallet in September 2025 after he moved roughly $9 million of WLFI between addresses including HTX, where he serves on the exchange's Global Advisory Board. Sun has since sued the project, alleging the WLFI contract includes a hidden backdoor that lets the team freeze investor tokens without notice or consent.
WLFI has not publicly addressed the HTX freeze. On June 3, the project posted a general reminder that it maintains sanctions compliance controls and that transactions involving sanctioned entities may be blocked, without naming any specific counterparty.
The World Liberty Financial team did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Block.