World Liberty proposes 180-day staking rule for WLFI governance

World Liberty Financial has proposed requiring holders to stake their WLFI tokens in order to vote on governance decisions.

According to a governance proposal published Wednesday, holders of unlocked WLFI would need to stake their tokens for a minimum of 180 days in order to participate in governance decisions. 

The World Liberty team argues that the measure is designed to ensure that “voting power is held by participants with long-term alignment to the protocol,” rather than “short-term holders or speculators.” 

Tokens that remain locked would retain voting rights without additional staking requirements.

Participants who commit their tokens and take part in at least two governance votes during the lock-up period would qualify for a base reward targeting a 2% annual yield, funded from the WLFI treasury. 

Voting power would scale according to both the amount staked and the remaining duration of the lock. 

World Liberty described the incentive structure as “one of the most significant steps forward in the evolution of WLFI.”

The proposal, if passed, would also formalise a tiered system tied to staking size.

Holders staking at least 10 million WLFI, roughly $1 million at current prices, would qualify as “Nodes.” 

That status grants access to licensed market makers capable of converting stablecoins such as USDT and USDC into USD1 at a 1:1 rate, alongside direct fiat off-ramps. 

Those staking more than 50 million WLFI would be designated “Super Nodes,” unlocking additional privileges including priority partnership opportunities and potential economic incentives linked to approved integrations.

Beyond governance rewards, the staking framework is designed to drive activity within the USD1 ecosystem. 

Stakers would receive “additional benefits for USD1 usage,” including incentives for depositing USD1 on WLFI Markets, the project’s trading and lending platform. 

Further, Dolomite, a DeFi protocol, is expected to provide unspecified rewards tied to those deposits.

A quorum of 1 billion eligible WLFI voting tokens would be required for the measure to pass, with a simple majority needed for approval. 

More than 27 billion WLFI tokens are currently in circulation, according to public market data. 

If approved, implementation would unfold in three stages: first, the activation of staking rewards and USD1 deposit incentives; second, the rollout of the 1:1 conversion mechanism; and finally, expanded partnership access and a revenue-sharing framework for Super Nodes.

The governance push arrives at a sensitive moment for the project’s stablecoin.

USD1 briefly slipped to $0.99707 earlier this week before recovering, an episode the team attributed to a coordinated short campaign amplified on social media. 

The incident followed a period of accelerated institutional positioning, including the stablecoin’s role as the exclusive settlement asset in a $2 billion transaction between Abu Dhabi’s MGX fund and Binance, which rapidly lifted circulation above the $2 billion threshold.

Efforts to boost USD1 adoption

World Liberty has steadily expanded USD1’s footprint since its launch in early 2025. 

The stablecoin is backed by US dollar deposits and short-term Treasury bills, with reserves held by BitGo and subject to monthly third-party attestations. 

It now operates across multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Solana, TRON, Aptos, and AB Core, supported by cross-chain infrastructure intended to reduce liquidity fragmentation.

Institutional ambitions extend beyond governance reform.

Last month, WLTC Holdings LLC filed a de novo application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish World Liberty Trust Company, National Association, a proposed national trust bank designed specifically for stablecoin operations. 

Chief executive Zach Witkoff said securing a federal charter would allow the firm to “bring issuance, custody, and conversion together as a full-stack offering under one highly regulated entity,” consolidating services that are currently distributed across multiple partners.

Last month, a controversial governance proposal approved the allocation of 5% of the treasury to support USD1 integrations across both centralised and decentralised platforms.

Subsequently, the project also announced World Swap, a foreign exchange and remittance platform designed to route cross-border transfers through USD1 instead of traditional banking intermediaries.

The lending arm, WLFI Markets, has also reported substantial early activity, reinforcing the project’s effort to anchor USD1 at the centre of its broader financial stack.

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