UAE's Tahnoon Behind Largest Stake in Trump Crypto Bank
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- Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan and co-investors hold a 49% stake in WLTC Holdings — the holding company for the Trump family's planned crypto bank — through StringZ Holding RSC, with a Trump-family-affiliated entity owning an additional 38%.
- Tahnoon's network previously invested $500 million in World Liberty Financial in January 2025, receiving a 49% stake in the crypto company; Trump's 2025 annual financial disclosure shows $263 million flowed to Trump family entities from that deal.
- The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted World Liberty preliminary conditional approval this month to establish a federally chartered national trust bank that would issue, redeem, and safeguard USD1, World Liberty's dollar-backed stablecoin.
- Trump's businesses generated at least $59.5 million in foreign licensing revenue during the first year of his second term, per CNBC's prior reporting.
- The arrangement has drawn scrutiny because the Trump administration has simultaneously negotiated with the UAE over advanced AI chips, approving sales to G42 — a state-backed AI company controlled by Tahnoon — and last month easing purchase limits.
- World Liberty spokesman David Wachsman called the firm "a private American financial technology company, not a political organization" and denied conflicts of interest; the White House has previously denied conflicts of interest as well.
Why it matters: A foreign national security advisor who is simultaneously the Trump administration's counterpart in AI-chip export negotiations now holds the single largest stake in the president's family's federally chartered crypto bank — a structure the source itself flags as raising conflict-of-interest questions, even as both the White House and World Liberty deny any impropriety.
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