On January 17, 2025, four days before Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term, a company controlled by one of Abu Dhabi’s most powerful royals signed a secret deal to acquire nearly half of the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture. The transaction — $500 million in exchange for a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial — was not a routine investment. It was, by any measure, an unprecedented arrangement: a foreign government official becoming the largest shareholder in an incoming American president’s private company.
🔑 Key Takeaways
- Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan invested $500 million for 49% in World Liberty Financial
- His entity StringZ Holding RSC is the largest outside shareholder in World Liberty Trust Company
- The OCC granted preliminary conditional approval in August 2026 for a federal bank charter
- Links to AI chip exports to the UAE raise national security concerns
Who Is the ‘Spy Sheikh’?
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan is not a typical Gulf investor. He is the brother of UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, the country’s national security adviser, and the chair of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala Development Company, which manages over $1.3 trillion in assets. He also oversees G42, an Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence company that has pushed aggressively — and, according to U.S. intelligence officials, controversially — for access to American AI hardware.
Because of his broad intelligence portfolio, Tahnoon is sometimes referred to in Western diplomatic circles as the « spy sheikh. » He has been linked to cyberespionage operations targeting political dissidents abroad, and his influence spans everything from surveillance technology to fish farms. This profile makes his deepening financial entanglement with the Trump family especially striking — and especially alarming to ethics watchdogs.
The Deal: $500 Million for Nearly Half the Company
According to reporting by The Wall Street Journal — corroborated by CNBC, The Guardian, and the Center for American Progress — Tahnoon’s investment firm wired $187 million upfront to World Liberty Financial within days of the January 2025 deal being signed by Eric Trump. The total commitment was $500 million in exchange for 49% of the company.
That initial payment alone directed $187 million directly to Trump family entities. An additional $31 million was routed to entities affiliated with Steve Witkoff, a World Liberty co-founder who, weeks after the deal closed, was named Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East — a diplomatic posting that would put him at the center of U.S. policy toward the very region his new financial benefactors call home.
« Trump effectively allowed the highest bidder to purchase access to one of the United States’ most guarded technological assets, advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips, and unprecedented leverage over companies critical to U.S. national security, while Trump and his family stood to financially benefit from such a deal. »
Center for American Progress, 2026
From Crypto Venture to Crypto Bank
World Liberty Financial launched during the 2024 presidential campaign, with Donald Trump listed as « Co-Founder Emeritus, » his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. as « Co-Founders, » and the Trump family retaining approximately 60% of the company. The family also keeps 75% of net revenues, according to regulatory filings — a structure that has no parallel in modern presidential history.
In March 2025, two months after Trump returned to the White House, World Liberty launched its dollar-backed stablecoin, USD1. The currency was initially met with skepticism from crypto analysts; Tether dominates the stablecoin market with approximately $183 billion in circulation, while Circle’s USDC holds over $70 billion. USD1 launched with a market capitalization of roughly $4 billion — a distant third, and tiny compared to established players.
Then, in May 2025, a game-changing endorsement arrived. MGX, an Abu Dhabi state-backed investment firm also controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon, announced it would use USD1 as the designated currency for a $2 billion investment in Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The deal did not involve traditional cash. It routed $2 billion entirely through USD1 — a stablecoin issued by the Trump family’s own company — effectively functioning as a massive injection of fees and legitimacy into World Liberty’s ecosystem.
The Genius Act and the Path to a Bank Charter
In July 2025, Trump signed into law the so-called « Genius Act, » a stablecoin framework that prohibited issuers from paying interest to depositors but required them to back their tokens with high-quality liquid assets such as cash and U.S. Treasury bonds. The law cleared the regulatory path for stablecoin issuers to apply for federal bank charters — and Trump never hid the fact that he saw the legislation as personally advantageous. At the signing ceremony, he joked: « I named it after myself. »
World Liberty Financial Trust Company — the banking subsidiary — filed its application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) shortly after. On August 14, 2026, the OCC granted it preliminary conditional approval to operate as a nationally chartered trust bank. The bank would issue, redeem, and safeguard USD1, but would need to satisfy additional conditions before opening its doors.
| Entity | Stake in WLTC Holdings |
|---|---|
| StringZ Holding RSC (Sheikh Tahnoon) | 49% |
| Trump Family Entity | 38% |
| Other Investors | 13% |
« There has never been a case where a U.S. president had an interest in a bank his own administration would approve and regulate, » said Patrick Woodall, managing director of Americans for Financial Reforms.
Patrick Woodall, Americans for Financial Reforms
What Can Depositors Actually Do at the Bank?
This is where things get legally and ethically complicated in a hurry.
World Liberty Trust Company is not a conventional bank. It will not issue mortgages, extend credit cards, or make loans to small businesses. It will not be eligible for federal deposit insurance. What it will do is accept deposits — in the form of USD1 stablecoin purchases — and invest those deposits in U.S. Treasury bonds, earning interest for itself.
Because the Genius Act prohibits stablecoin issuers from paying interest to depositors, customers who buy USD1 through the bank will not earn a return on their holdings. They will, however, be holding a stablecoin whose primary issuer is a company owned by the Trump family, and whose largest outside shareholder is a foreign government official with deep ties to an administration that is simultaneously regulating that same bank.
« The only reason really to do it is because they want to appease Trump, because they want to gain favor with Trump or in some way help Trump for whatever reason…. For a depositor in the bank, this is a very efficient way to buy influence with the Trump gang. »
James Angel, Associate Professor, Georgetown University
Conclusion: Institutional Guardrails Put to the Test
The World Liberty Trust Company saga is, at its core, a story about the fragility of institutional guardrails in the age of crypto. It is about a regulatory framework — the Genius Act — that was signed into law by a president who stood to profit from its implementation. It is about an OCC approval process that is supposed to be insulated from political interference but is led by a Trump appointee in an administration that has every incentive to see the charter succeed.
And it is about a foreign government official who, having invested half a billion dollars in the Trump family’s most prominent business venture, is now the single largest outside stakeholder in the Trump family’s bank. Whether any laws were broken is a question for Congress and the courts. Whether the arrangement represents a fundamental violation of the public trust placed in the presidency is not seriously disputed by anyone outside the administration. Multiple legal, financial, and national security experts have noted that there is no precedent in modern American history for anything like it.
Sources
- CNBC – UAE ‘spy sheikh’ backs 49% stake in Trump family’s crypto bank venture
- The Guardian – Crypto bank part-owned by Trump family offers depositors way to ‘gain favor’ with White House
- Center for American Progress – How Trump’s $500 Million UAE Crypto Deal Trades U.S. National Security for Family Profit
- The Wall Street Journal – ‘Spy Sheikh’ Bought Secret Stake in Trump Company
Cet article est publié à titre informatif et éducatif. Il ne constitue en aucun cas un conseil en investissement. Faites vos propres recherches (DYOR) avant toute décision.
