UAE ‘spy sheikh’ backs 49% stake in Trump family’s crypto bank venture, WSJ reports
World Liberty’s proposed trust bank has preliminary federal approval as the Trump-backed crypto venture deepens its ties to a senior UAE official.
TL;DR
- Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan, UAE's national security advisor, is behind a 49% stake in WLTC Holdings, the holding company for Trump's planned crypto bank.
- An entity affiliated with the Trump family owns an additional 38% of WLTC Holdings.
- Tahnoon and other investors previously put $500 million into World Liberty Financial in January 2025, receiving a 49% stake in the cryptocurrency company.
- World Liberty has received preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a federally chartered national trust bank.
- The arrangement is under scrutiny because Tahnoon is a foreign official and the administration has negotiated chip sales with the UAE.
- A World Liberty spokesman stated the firm is a private company and has no conflicts of interest.