The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported that crypto firm World Liberty Financial (WLF), in which the Trump family originally held a 75% interest, sold a 49% stake to a UAE firm, Aryam Investment, backed by HH Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The deal was allegedly signed four days before President Trump’s second inauguration, and involved $500 million for the stake despite WLF having no products at the time. Aryam also has no rights to the WLFI token. The news comes at a critical time with crypto market infrastructure legislation progressing, but Democrats pushing for ethics clauses.
Sheikh Tahnoon is the UAE national security adviser and the brother of the UAE President, Mohamed bin Zayed. He is also the Chairman of AI-linked firms MGX and G42. In March 2025, when MGX made a $2 billion investment in crypto exchange Binance, it settled the payment using WLF’s stablecoin, USD1, which had recently launched. There was no mention that MGX affiliates owned almost half of WLF.
In early 2024, before the second Trump election win, Republican lawmakers raised concerns about G42 relationships with Microsoft, OpenAI and Dell, citing worries about the transfer of AI technology and alleging Chinese links, particularly by G42 CEO Peng Xiao. A letter signed by then Republican lawmaker Mike Gallagher asserted that the G42 CEO had links to “PRC-based companies that develop dual-use technologies and materially support PRC military-civil fusion and human rights abuses.” Despite these concerns, in May 2025, the United States agreed that the UAE could buy 500,000 AI chips, with a significant portion going to G42.
Given Sheikh Tahnoon’s link to both the AI chip deal and the Aryam investment in WLF, the latter carries implications beyond a straightforward financial transaction.
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