Spend ten thousand dollars on an API key and receive a complimentary ticket to a dinner at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, with Donald Trump Jr. as your dining companion.
This is not a joke.
On May 5, the official account of World Liberty Financial (a cryptocurrency project co-founded by the Trump family, hereinafter referred to as WLFI) shared a new product called WorldClaw, and Donald Trump Jr.'s social media also reposted it.
WorldClaw calls itself the first AI project within the WLFI ecosystem, positioned as an "AI Agent Operating System."
Experience shows that to gauge whether a business is thriving, you only need to see if the industry leaders are involved; and this project is essentially an AI intermediary business.
The core feature currently live on WorldClaw is called WorldRouter: it consolidates the APIs of AI large models such as Claude, GPT, Gemini, and Qwen behind a single interface. By registering an account and obtaining an API key, you can seamlessly switch between all models.
According to the official website, more than 60 models have already been integrated, with plans to cover over 300 in the future.
According to WorldClaw's official website, WorldRouter's pricing is approximately 30% lower than the public rates offered by individual model providers and OpenRouter.
Taking Claude Sonnet 4.6 as an example, Anthropic charges $3 per million tokens for input, while WorldRouter charges $2.10. The website does not explain how they achieve lower pricing...
No KYC required, no foreign phone number or credit card needed. To use its intermediary service, payment is accepted in one form only: USD1, the USD-pegged stablecoin issued by WLFI.
Then, the purchase packages for this product are divided into four tiers:
The cheapest plan offers 1,000 AI credits for $9.90; the Standard plan offers 10,000 credits for $99; and the top-tier Max plan provides 1 million AI credits for $9,999 (or by locking up 2.5 million WLFI tokens), plus a hardware device with no disclosed brand or specifications. Below the official website image, a small note reads: “Image for illustration only; actual product may vary.” Shipping is expected in Q3 2026.
We don't even really understand what this hardware is used for.
However, the most appealing part is that purchasing the Max plan also enters you into a draw for a private dinner at Mar-a-Lago—you could have the chance to dine with the Trump family.
The AI intermediary business is not new; according to TokenNav’s directory, at least 84 similar products exist domestically and internationally. But WorldClaw is the first to bundle AI credits with a meal involving the president’s family.
In such a crowded space, how wide a moat can a dinner ticket really create?
Too competitive
How much can you earn with an AI intermediary station?
The current industry benchmark in this space is OpenRouter, founded by Alex Atallah, former CTO of OpenSea. According to public reports, a16z led a $40 million investment last year, valuing the company at $500 million. With a team of fewer than ten people, it generates over $100 million in annual revenue, taking a 5% fee on each API call.
OpenRouter has proven that this business can scale significantly. But beneath it, the competition is far fiercer than most people realize.
In March this year, Shenchao reported on the token gold rush driven by OpenClaw, mentioning that some transit station operators earned over a million yuan in a single month. According to a Tencent News investigation, the profits of these transit stations come from three sources: fees for access barriers, fees for quota management, and profits from information asymmetry.
The玩法 at domestic transit stations is much more aggressive than OpenRouter's.
According to reviews on Zhihu, some platforms have reduced the price of Claude Sonnet 4.6 to 0.3% of the official rate, equivalent to approximately 4.5 cents RMB per million tokens.
How is it done?
Bulk purchase subscription accounts, then use browser automation and reverse engineering to wrap the web-based chat interface as an API. Users believe they are calling the official API, while behind the scenes, a rotating cookie pool may be in use.
This practice is clearly problematic from a compliance standpoint. According to public reports, the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center has issued multiple warnings about the multiple legal risks associated with AI relay stations. However, demand is extremely high and the prices are exceptionally low, so users continue to flood in.
Previously, Sun Ge’s B.AI also operated as a middleman; now even Fu Sheng has entered the scene. EasyRouter, under Cheetah Mobile, launched this year, offering up to 15% off across the board, with some models as low as 25% off...
Look back at WorldClaw.
It claims to be 30% cheaper than the official price, which is reasonable by official channel standards, but this price is completely uncompetitive in the broader intermediary market. A domestic user seeking only low cost and convenience has dozens of more mature and cheaper options available.
WorldClaw is clearly not competing for the same users as these sites. In fact, its primary focus may not even be on the intermediaries.
The drunkard's intention is not in the transit station, but in the stablecoin.
OpenRouter accepts credit cards, domestic intermediaries accept Alipay and WeChat Pay, and some also accept USDT. WorldClaw accepts only one: USD1.
This choice itself is the answer.
USD1 is a USD-pegged stablecoin launched by WLFI in March 2025, backed 1:1 by the U.S. dollar. According to official information, it is custodied by BitGo Trust, with underlying assets consisting of U.S. Treasuries, U.S. dollar deposits, and cash equivalents. It currently operates on Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana.
In short, WLFI wants to create its own USDT.
WorldClaw’s payment system is centered around USD1. To purchase AI credits, use USD1. If you prefer not to spend money, you can lock up WLFI tokens to earn credits—250,000 WLFI for the Pro plan and 2,500,000 WLFI for the Max plan. Both paths lead to the same goal: integrating users into the WLFI token ecosystem.
More notably, there is something called the AgentPay SDK. WorldClaw has integrated it into its product, enabling AI agents to autonomously make payments of USD 1 while executing tasks. If this functionality works as intended, each time an AI automatically invokes a model or executes a workflow, it will generate a USD 1 on-chain transaction.
The machine doesn't favor any payment method—the first one integrated becomes the default.
According to public reports, WLFI has submitted an application to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national bank trust charter. Upon receiving the charter, WLFI will be able to issue, custody, and redeem USD1 independently under a regulated entity, eliminating reliance on third parties. This charter aims to transform USD1 from a project token into a compliant financial infrastructure.
Looking at these points together, WorldClaw’s business model becomes clear.
All the intermediary services on the market are competing for the same thing: which one has the most comprehensive model, the lowest price, and the lowest latency.
WorldClaw isn't competing in these areas—it's competing in the payment layer. Every user who purchases AI tokens must first hold USD1; the more they use it, the greater the on-chain circulation of USD1.
AI demand is the entry point, but the adoption rate of stablecoins is the true metric WLFI aims for.
So think of it this way: WorldClaw isn’t an AI company that added a crypto payment feature—it’s a crypto project that found AI as its distribution channel.
A time of turmoil
On April 22 of this year, Sun Yuchen formally sued WLFI in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, accusing it of extortion and claiming that WLFI was "on the verge of collapse," while publicly questioning whether USD1 had sufficient reserves to back it.
On May 4, WLFI filed a counterclaim alleging that Sun Zhenyu orchestrated a coordinated smear campaign, hiring influencers and bots to spread false information with the intent of depressing the token's price.
WorldClaw launched on May 5.
Outside of litigation, WLFI’s own governance structure has also been a point of community controversy. According to Taiwan-based blockchain media Chain News, WLFI’s largest single wallet holds nearly 13% of voting power, with the top four wallets collectively controlling approximately 40%.
Previously, the WLFI treasury used 5 billion of its own tokens as collateral to borrow $75 million in stablecoins from Dolomite, a lending platform co-founded by the co-founders, and was criticized by the community for indirect monetization.
This is the underlying ecosystem behind WorldClaw.
The AI intermediary operates on a pre-charging model, where users deposit funds first and then use the services. This means trust is essential—you must believe the platform won’t disappear, that model calls are genuine, and that your deposited funds will reliably be exchanged for services.
For a small domestic transit station, trust relies on the station manager’s reputation and community oversight. For WorldClaw, trust is based on the ecological reputation of WLFI. And right now, WLFI’s reputation is being pulled in both directions—in federal court in San Francisco and in courts in Delaware—by both plaintiffs and defendants.
In essence, the ability of AI intermediaries to wrap and resell APIs is not rare—it’s the trust required to get users to pay upfront that’s hard to earn.
WorldClaw's answer was the name of the presidential family and a ticket to a dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Whether this is sufficient is for everyone to decide.
Author: Curry, Shenchao TechFlow
Source: Shenchao TechFlow