A cryptocurrency venture announced in September by US President-elect Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff, Trump's pick to be his Middle East envoy, has partnered with a crypto trading platform that authorities and experts say has been used by criminals as well as by the Iran-backed militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which Washington has designated as terrorist organizations.

Witkoff and Trump founded World Liberty Financial two months before Trump’s November victory against his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, in the presidential election. Trump’s family is heavily involved in the project, including two of his sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., who are executives in the crypto company.

World Liberty Financial’s partner is Tron, a crypto platform that allows the trading of stablecoins, such as Tether, USD Coin and Tron's native token, Tronix. As a quicker and cheaper network than Bitcoin, Tron has experienced lightning growth.

In the second quarter of 2023, the transfer volume of Tether on Tron reached $1.25 trillion, up from $25.2 billion in the second quarter of 2020. Tron is the second-largest blockchain for stablecoins — digital assets designed to maintain a stable value through their price being pegged to an external currency, such as the US dollar — accounting for 35.2% of the total market.