★ Private Action
UAE firm uses $2B Trump-Witkoff stablecoin for Binance stake
Crypto in the FamilyGulf Money, U.S. Favors
Filed May 2025$2,000,000,000
★ The Brief
What happened
Sheikh Tahnoon — the UAE national security adviser who oversees roughly $1.5 trillion in sovereign assets — directed a state-controlled fund to settle a $2 billion Binance investment using World Liberty Financial's USD1 stablecoin, parking the matching $2 billion in WLF reserves.
Deal or steal?
Steve Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy, co-founded WLF with the Trump family and had not yet divested at the time of the $2 billion transaction. The same month, Treasury launched a fast-track CFIUS pilot Tahnoon had lobbied for.
★ Cast your vote
In May 2025, Zach Witkoff announced at a conference in Dubai that an investment firm controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan — the UAE's national security adviser and sovereign wealth manager overseeing approximately $1.5 trillion in assets — would deposit $2 billion into World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency start-up co-founded by the Witkoff and Trump families. The announcement instantly made World Liberty Financial one of the world's most prominent crypto companies and gave it a revenue stream that analysts estimated could be worth tens of millions of dollars annually. Steve Witkoff, Zach's father and Trump's Middle East envoy, had not yet divested from World Liberty at the time of the investment, according to a disclosure document made public in August 2025.
Sources
- The Wall Street Journal · February 1, 2026wsj.com'Spy Sheikh' Bought Secret Stake in Trump Company
- AP News · October 23, 2025apnews.comTrump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao | AP News
- New York Times · September 15, 2025nytimes.comAnatomy of Two Giant Deals: The U.A.E. Got Chips. The Trump Team Got Crypto Riches.
- New York Times · May 5, 2025nytimes.comTrump Sons' Deals on Three Continents Directly Benefit the President
Further reading
- ★ Private ActionJanuary 2025UAE-backed Aryam buys 49% of Trump crypto venture four days before inauguration
- ★ Government ActionMay 2025White House grants UAE access to advanced AI chips for G42
- ★ Government ActionSeptember 2025Trump TikTok deal names Tahnoon's MGX as U.S. operator
- ★ Private ActionApril 2025Russian-linked DWF Labs buys $25M in Trump crypto tokens
- ★ Private ActionNovember 2024Justin Sun anchors Trump DeFi token sale with $30M buy
- ★ Private ActionJune 2026Trump banked $2.2 billion in year one, mostly from crypto he regulates