USD1 depegged from its $1 value on February 22, 2026, and things got messy fast. WLFI tokens dropped over 10% in a short window, Eric Trump quietly deleted a retweet, and World Liberty Financial went into damage control mode. Let’s unpack exactly what happened.
What Triggered the USD1 Depeg?
World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin USD1 slipped to around $0.99422 before recovering. Not a catastrophic drop, sure, but stablecoins aren’t supposed to move at all. Even a two-cent slip raises questions, and this one had a politically charged project name attached to it.
Then Eric Trump deleted a retweet. The post in question came from WLFI’s official account and mentioned new USD1 trading pairs on Binance. Nobody explained why it was removed. Traders didn’t wait around for an explanation either. That post had referenced new USD1 trading pairs on Binance. The deletion triggered immediate speculation. Traders read it as a red flag and started selling.
WLFI token fell to around $0.107 USDT at its lowest, recording a decline of roughly 5–10% over a 24-hour window. Trading volume, however, surged past $338 million, up over 86% from the previous day. Panic sells, and opportunistic shorts flooded the market at the same time.
WLFI Claims It Was a Coordinated Attack
World Liberty Financial didn’t stay quiet. The team publicly stated that USD1 depegged because of a deliberate, coordinated attack. According to their statement, bad actors hacked into accounts belonging to several WLFI co-founders and used those accounts to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt, which the crypto world calls FUD.
Alongside the social media manipulation, WLFI alleged that traders used paid channels to amplify the panic and shorted WLFI tokens heavily to profit from the resulting price drop. It’s a classic playbook: manufacture fear, watch prices fall, collect your shorts.
WLFI maintained that USD1 holds a 1:1 full reserve and minting redemption mechanism, and urged users to rely only on verified official sources for information.
Eric Trump’s Deleted Retweet Added Fuel to the Fire
The tweet deletion made things significantly worse. In crypto, silence from founders is often interpreted as guilt. When someone with Eric Trump’s profile removes a post referencing a specific Binance listing, markets connect the dots fast, even if those dots don’t form a straight line.
Eric Trump still follows the official WLFI account. His other posts referencing the project remain up. The deleted retweet appears to have been a standalone decision rather than a full disengagement, but the timing couldn’t have been worse, given that USD1 depegged the same day.
The Binance Airdrop Sitting in the Background
Adding more context to the chaos: Binance had launched an airdrop campaign for USD1 holders, running from February 20 to March 20, 2026, with a total reward pool of 235 million WLFI tokens. Weekly rewards are distributed to eligible users, with the first drop scheduled for March 4.
This airdrop was a big deal for WLFI holders. A sudden depeg event right after the announcement, combined with the deleted tweet, made investors nervous about whether the project was stable enough to trust.
Is USD1 Actually Safe?
WLFI insists it is. The team confirmed full reserves back for every USD1 in circulation and that the depeg was temporary and externally manufactured. The stablecoin recovered toward $0.9966 fairly quickly, which does support their version of events to some extent.
WLFI isn’t operating in a vacuum. There’s a $500 million Abu Dhabi investment from Aryam Investment under scrutiny, U.S. lawmakers pushing for a congressional probe, and Donald Trump’s name on the project. Any small wobble gets amplified ten times over. One deleted retweet turned into a 10% token drop. That tells you everything about how fragile sentiment is around this project right now. That’s the reality USD1 is operating in right now.
Why did USD1 depeg?
USD1 depegged briefly on February 22, 2026, falling to around $0.994. WLFI attributed it to a coordinated attack involving hacked founder accounts and large-scale shorting.
What did Eric Trump delete?
Eric Trump deleted a retweet of a World Liberty Financial post about new USD1 trading pairs on Binance. The deletion triggered a market sell-off.
Did USD1 recover its peg?
Yes. USD1 recovered close to $0.9966 shortly after the dip. WLFI confirmed its 1:1 reserve backing remains intact.
Is WLFI token still trading?
Yes, WLFI continued trading after the drop, settling near $0.111 with elevated volume following the incident.
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