New details have emerged regarding the ownership structure of World Liberty Financial's planned banking business. According to reports, investors linked to Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan control a 49% stake in WLTC Holdings.
WLTC Holdings was established for World Liberty's planned bank, which recently secured preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Alongside the Tahnoon-linked StringZ Holding RSC owning 49% of WLTC Holdings, a Trump family-linked entity controls another 38%.
This development adds to existing financial ties between Sheikh Tahnoon and World Liberty. Previously, Tahnoon and other investors backed a $500 million investment that reportedly provided the group with a 49% interest in World Liberty itself. According to Donald Trump's financial disclosure, that earlier agreement directed about $263 million to Trump family entities.
The bank being established by World Liberty aims to issue, redeem, and safeguard USD1, the company's dollar-backed stablecoin. USD1 currently holds a market value of roughly $4 billion and is supported by U.S. Treasurys and cash equivalents. World Liberty Financial CEO Zach Witkoff stated that the company's goal is to build a widely used digital dollar, though the bank must still fulfill additional OCC requirements prior to beginning operations.
Sheikh Tahnoon's involvement has drawn attention due to his positions as the UAE's national security adviser, brother to the country's president, and controller of state-backed AI company G42. The broader relationship has faced additional scrutiny amid negotiations between the Trump administration and the UAE regarding advanced U.S. AI chips, for which G42 has received purchasing approval.
Responding to concerns, World Liberty Financial spokesman David Wachsman stated that the enterprise is a private American financial technology company rather than a political organization and does not receive special treatment.
Concurrently, World Liberty is engaged in a legal dispute with investor Justin Sun, who put $45 million into the project. Sun alleges that the company improperly froze or restricted his WLFI tokens and is pursuing hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, having secured an order to prevent the permanent disposal of the disputed tokens. World Liberty has not accepted Sun's allegations as facts while continuing to advance its banking initiatives.
