An Abu Dhabi investment vehicle backed by UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan secretly bought a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million days before Donald Trump’s January 2025 inauguration, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The deal, signed four days before the inauguration and never publicly disclosed, made the Emirati-backed entity the crypto project’s largest outside shareholder, according to the Journal.
Half of the investment was paid upfront, with $187 million flowing to Trump family-controlled entities and at least $31 million to firms linked to the family of World Liberty co-founder and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
The buyer was Aryam Investment 1, an Abu Dhabi vehicle backed by Tahnoon, who is also the brother of UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, with executives from his AI firm G42 taking board seats at World Liberty.
The transaction helps explain a previously unexplained dilution of DT Marks DeFi’s ownership in World Liberty’s holding company, which fell to about 40% in mid-2025 from 75% late last year.
Scrutiny of the deal has intensified as Tahnoon has pushed Washington for access to advanced AI chips, with the Trump administration later pledging to sell hundreds of thousands of powerful processors annually to the UAE, including to G42.
World Liberty Financial and the White House denied any wrongdoing, saying Trump was not involved in the transaction and that the investment did not influence US policy decisions.
At the time of reporting, World Liberty Financial price was $0.1314.