A state-linked investment vehicle from the United Arab Emirates agreed to buy nearly half of a cryptocurrency startup tied to President Donald Trump just days before he returned to the White House, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.
Documents reviewed by the Journal show that Aryam Investment 1, an Abu Dhabi-based entity backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, signed an agreement in January 2025 to purchase a 49 percent stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million.
The deal was not publicly disclosed at the time, despite later statements indicating that the Trump family’s ownership in the company had significantly declined.
How the transaction was structured
According to people familiar with the matter cited by the Journal, half of the purchase price was paid upfront. Roughly $187 million from that initial payment was routed to entities controlled by the Trump family.
Additional tens of millions of dollars were distributed to companies linked to World Liberty’s co-founders, including businesses connected to relatives of U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
The agreement was signed on behalf of World Liberty by Eric Trump, the Journal reported, though the company has said President Trump himself was not involved in the negotiations.
Why the timing is drawing scrutiny
The investment took place against the backdrop of renewed U.S.-UAE engagement following Trump’s election victory.
Sheikh Tahnoon, a key architect of Abu Dhabi’s technology strategy, has been leading efforts to position the UAE as a global artificial intelligence hub. During the Biden administration, those ambitions faced resistance, particularly over access to advanced U.S.-designed AI chips, amid concerns about technology leakage to China through firms such as G42.
After Trump’s return to office, those constraints eased. Tahnoon reportedly met multiple times with Trump and senior U.S. officials, and the administration later committed to granting the UAE access to hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips each year.
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Links to crypto and AI deepen
The Journal reported that executives affiliated with G42 helped manage Aryam Investment 1 and secured board seats at World Liberty Financial as part of the deal, making Aryam the startup’s largest external shareholder.
Weeks before Washington and Abu Dhabi announced their AI chip framework, another Tahnoon-backed firm, MGX, used World Liberty’s U.S. dollar stablecoin to complete a $2 billion investment into Binance, further tightening the links between the UAE’s sovereign capital, crypto infrastructure, and U.S. policy shifts.
Political and regulatory concerns resurface
World Liberty Financial has already faced scrutiny on Capitol Hill.
In November, Democratic lawmakers urged U.S. authorities to examine whether the company’s token sales involved sanctioned foreign actors. In a letter to the Justice Department and Treasury, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jack Reed cited claims that blockchain addresses associated with North Korea’s Lazarus Group, as well as Russian- and Iranian-linked entities, had acquired WLFI governance tokens.
Lawmakers have also raised concerns about World Liberty’s ownership model, which directs a majority of token-sale revenue to Trump family-linked entities. Critics argue that such a structure presents a potential conflict of interest given Trump’s position as president.
World Liberty Financial and the White House have denied any wrongdoing. Spokespeople told the Journal that President Trump had no involvement in the transaction and that the investment conferred no influence over U.S. government policy.
What to watch next
Regulatory scrutiny of politically connected crypto ventures is expected to intensify as Congress and federal agencies examine the intersection of foreign investment, digital assets, and national security.
Whether U.S. authorities pursue formal investigations into World Liberty’s financing and token distribution could shape how similar crypto deals tied to political figures are treated going forward.
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