Abu Dhabi Royal Secretly Bought 49% of Trump’s World Liberty Financial for $500M
Documents reveal Sheikh Tahnoon’s vehicle injected $500M into WLFI days before inauguration, with $187M paid directly to Trump entities.
The $500M Receipt Revealed
A secret $500 million capital injection into World Liberty Financial (WLFI) has been traced to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s National Security Advisor. According to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, an Abu Dhabi-based entity named Aryam Investment 1 executed the purchase of a 49% stake in the project on January 16, 2025, just four days before Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The deal funneled immediate liquidity to the project’s founders. Of the initial tranche, $187 million was paid directly to Trump family-controlled entities, specifically DT Marks DEFI LLC and DT Marks SC LLC. Another $31 million flowed to entities tied to co-founders, including the family of U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Market Reaction: WLFI tokens slid 16% to $0.12 following the report, erasing recent gains as governance concerns resurfaced.
Connecting the Dots: The Binance Link
This revelation re-contextualizes the protocol’s rapid ascent. In May 2025, months after this secret capital injection, another Tahnoon-led firm, MGX, utilized World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin to execute a $2 billion investment into Binance. That transaction, which legitimized the then-nascent stablecoin, now appears to have been part of a broader, coordinated strategy between Abu Dhabi state capital and the Trump-linked DeFi project.
“The agreement would make Aryam the biggest shareholder in World Liberty and its only known investor outside the founders.”, Wall Street Journal
Institutional Implications
The timing is critical. The capital injection occurred weeks before the announcement of a major US-UAE semiconductor framework, granting the Emirates access to advanced American AI chips. Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jack Reed have already flagged WLFI’s opacity, citing potential exposure to sanctioned actors. This confirmed direct financial link between a foreign sovereign official and the sitting President’s family business will likely force a regulatory collision, specifically regarding the Emoluments Clause and OFAC compliance for the USD1 stablecoin issuer.
