An Abu Dhabi investment vehicle linked to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million in January 2025, days before President Trump's inauguration.
The deal was not publicly disclosed until The Wall Street Journal reported it on February 1, citing documents and people familiar with the matter.
Aryam Investment 1, the buyer, paid half the amount upfront. Of that sum, $187 million went to Trump family-controlled entities, with additional tens of millions flowing to entities tied to co-founders including relatives of U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Eric Trump reportedly signed the agreement.
The deal made Aryam the largest outside shareholder in World Liberty Financial (WLFI). Executives from G42, a technology company controlled by Tahnoon, helped manage the investment vehicle and took board seats at the crypto firm as part of the arrangement.
Broader UAE-Trump Crypto Dealings
Tahnoon controls significant portions of Abu Dhabi's technology and financial infrastructure. Under the Biden administration, his efforts to secure advanced U.S.-made AI chips faced restrictions due to concerns about potential transfer to China.
After Trump took office, those restrictions eased. Within months, the administration approved a framework granting the UAE access to hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips annually. Separately, another Tahnoon-led firm, MGX, used World Liberty Financial's USD1 stablecoin to complete a $2 billion investment into Binance.
No reporting has established a direct causal link between any cryptocurrency investment and subsequent U.S. policy decisions. The White House and World Liberty Financial have denied any wrongdoing, stating Trump was not involved in the Aryam deal and that it did not influence government policy.
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Congressional Scrutiny
In November 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jack Reed requested the Justice Department and Treasury investigate World Liberty Financial over alleged token sales to entities with blockchain connections to North Korea's Lazarus Group, sanctioned Russian actors, and Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges.
The allegations drew from a report by nonprofit watchdog Accountable.US, which identified $10,000 in WLFI token sales to traders with transaction histories linked to sanctioned wallets.
A Trump-affiliated entity, DT Marks DEFI LLC, controls 22.5 billion WLFI tokens and receives 75% of revenue from token sales. World Liberty Financial denied any compliance failures, stating it conducted identity verification on all pre-sale purchasers.
Read next: Treasury Sanctions First Crypto Exchanges For Operating In Iranian Financial Sector
