World Liberty’s partners head to court as DWF-linked firms sue BitGo over locked tokens

BitGo is facing a $141 million lawsuit over tokens that two firms tied to DWF Labs claim it sold earlier than agreed, per the Financial Times on Friday. 

The parties in the case filed in London’s High Court have one thing in common: ties to the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial DeFi project.

Why BitGo is being sued 

The $141 million London lawsuit BitGo faces is based on DWF Maas and Falcon Digital claims that BitGo might have breached lock-up and vesting period agreements for the Falcon Finance (FF) and ESPORTS tokens they bought at a discount in a private over-the-counter deal. 

The plaintiffs allege that BitGo went back on their three-month lock-up and vesting limits arrangement when it moved those tokens to exchanges, presumably to sell them, roughly two months before the first agreed unlock date. 

The DWF Labs-linked firms claim that BitGo’s token sales into a low-liquidity market dragged down the value of the tokens they held. 

Per the claimants, Falcon Finance was trading at about $0.08 in early March and $0.07 in late April. ESPORTS, on the other hand, went from trading around $0.28 in mid-March to $0.07 in early June.  

How is World Liberty connected to DWF Labs and BitGo?

The DeFi project backed by President Donald Trump is the thread connecting all the firms in this litigation. 

DWF Labs made what it described as a “strategic private transaction” when it bought $25 million of WLFI tokens in April 2025 as part of its plan to supply liquidity for USD1. 

World Liberty invested $10 million into Falcon Finance in July 2025 to work on conversions between USDf and USD1. The USDf stablecoin issued by the firm runs on DWF Labs infrastructure. DWF Labs and Falcon Finance share a founder: Andrei Grachev.

BitGo became the custodian for the reserves behind World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin. It is also responsible for minting and burning the stablecoins, too. Nearly $4.3 billion of USD1 is in circulation across Ethereum, BNB Chain, Solana and Tron.

World Liberty is pulling USD1 away from BitGo

The BitGo-World Liberty connection may already have an expiry date. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted World Liberty Trust Company preliminary conditional approval for its national trust bank on August 14, 2026. 

The charter document states the new bank plans to issue and redeem USD1 itself, “assuming this role from BitGo Bank & Trust, National Association, the current exclusive issuer and custodian for USD1.” 

Final approval still hinges on pre-opening conditions and can be revoked.

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