Just days before Donald Trump officially returned to the White House in January 2025, a massive $500 million cryptocurrency deal quietly went through, linking the Trump family to one of the most influential royals in the Middle East.
The deal, largely under the radar, transferred nearly $200 million to entities tied to the Trump family, sparking serious questions about potential conflicts of interest.
The agreement involved World Liberty Financial, a Trump-backed crypto firm, and Aryam Investment 1, a company controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser and brother to the country’s president.
It’s an arrangement that no one in Washington had publicly known about—until now.
How the Deal Worked
According to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, the January 16, 2025 deal gave Aryam a 49 percent ownership stake in World Liberty for $500 million.
Half of that payment, $250 million, was made immediately, with $187 million of it funneled directly to Trump-linked entities.
This transaction effectively made a foreign government official the largest shareholder in a company tied to the U.S. president—a move unprecedented in modern American politics.
Critics argue it raises serious ethical and national security concerns.
Sheikh Tahnoon’s Reach
Sheikh Tahnoon, long regarded as a powerhouse in the Middle East, oversees an empire worth over $1.3 trillion.
He also controls G42, a leading AI and surveillance company previously scrutinized over ties to Chinese tech firms like Huawei.
Under previous U.S. administrations, access to sensitive American AI chips was heavily restricted for the UAE, due to concerns about technology being diverted to Beijing.
But that changed after Trump returned to the Oval Office.
In March 2025, Tahnoon met with Trump and senior administration officials to discuss expanding AI and technology cooperation.
By May, the U.S. had approved a framework allowing the UAE to import roughly 500,000 advanced AI chips annually—a volume capable of creating one of the world’s largest data center clusters.
Publicly, it was celebrated as a win for U.S. tech firms, but privately, few knew about the financial ties to Trump’s crypto venture.
Political Fallout and Reactions
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut was quick to condemn the deal.
In a tweet, he called it “mind-blowing corruption,” pointing out that the UAE had already transferred $187 million to the Trumps and $31 million to the Witkoff family in secret payments before the AI chip deal was finalized.
At the time of the agreement, World Liberty Financial had no active products, generating revenue only from a token called WLFI, which had raised about $82 million.
The Aryam investment changed that overnight, triggering multimillion-dollar payouts to Trump-affiliated companies and the Witkoff family, longtime friends of the Trumps.
Boardroom Shakeup and Strategic Moves
As part of the deal, two senior executives from G42—Martin Edelman and Peng Xiao—joined World Liberty’s five-person board alongside Eric Trump and Zach Witkoff, the CEO.
Yet, the company did not publicly disclose the new leadership or the identity of its largest investor.
Company records later revealed the Trump family’s ownership had dropped from 75 percent to 38 percent, signaling a massive stake sale, though the buyer remained unnamed.
Around the same time, Zach Witkoff announced in Dubai that MGX, another Tahnoon-controlled fund, would use World Liberty’s stablecoin, USD1, to facilitate a $2 billion investment into Binance.
This move instantly elevated USD1 into the top tier of global stablecoins and created a massive cash reserve for World Liberty, which now invests in U.S. Treasury bonds, generating tens of millions in interest.
Legal and Ethical Questions
Legal experts have described the deal as explosive.
Former ethics lawyer Kathleen Clark told the Journal, “This sure looks like a violation of the foreign emoluments clause, and more to the point, it looks like a bribe.”
Ty Cobb, a top White House lawyer during Trump’s first term, was even more blunt: “You don’t do business deals with the families of foreign leaders. It taints American foreign policy.”
The White House, however, has denied any conflict of interest.
Spokespeople insisted that President Trump acts in the public’s best interest and has no involvement in business deals that could implicate his constitutional responsibilities.
World Liberty also maintained that the deal did not grant any government influence and was strictly in the company’s business interest.
Tangled Networks of Influence
This wasn’t Tahnoon’s first connection to Trump’s inner circle.
The sheikh’s companies had previously invested $1.5 billion into a firm run by Jared Kushner.
Following Trump’s inauguration, Tahnoon’s MGX was announced as an investor in a $500 billion AI data center project, which Trump personally promoted.
Later in 2025, MGX was authorized to operate TikTok in the U.S., and Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, moves that drew criticism from Democrats accusing the administration of selling access to wealthy foreign interests.
The intricate web of crypto, AI, and political influence shows just how far-reaching these private deals can become—and how little the public might know until months or years later.
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