The UAE investment fund which acquired 49% of WLFI profited
The investment fund linked to UAE Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan which acquired 49% of the crypto project World Liberty Financial (WLFI), according to The Wall Street Journal, actually made profit from the purchase, which at the time of the purchase in January 2025, the price of WLFI was $0.05 and now in January 2026 the price is $0.14 with expectations that it might reach $0.25 or $0.35.
According to the Wall Street Journal the deal was signed by Eric Trump on the eve of his father’s inauguration and was not publicly announced.
So what are the details, first the purchase was made by Aryam Investment 1, an Abu Dhabi company under the control of Sheikh Tahnoon, the UAE’s national security advisor and brother of the country’s president, Mohammed bin Zayed. Half of the sum, around, $250 million was paid in advance.
The second sale was launched to coincide with the presidential inauguration and aimed to raise $250 million, selling 5 billion tokens. Investors included $45 million investment from Tron founder Justin Sun in January, bringing his total contribution to $75 million. In September 2025, the price of the token reached an all time high of $0.46
Approximately $187 million went to Trump family companies (DT Marks DEFI LLC and DT Marks SC LLC), with at least $31 million directed to firms associated with project co-founder Steve Witkoff. Later, the president appointed Witkoff as a special envoy to the Middle East. His son, Zach, serves as the CEO of World Liberty Financial.
After the deal closed, representatives of the Emirati AI conglomerate G42, led by Sheikh Tahnoon, emerged. Aryam Investment 1 became the largest external shareholder of the DeFi platform.
Then in March 2025 in a public announcement, MGX, also owned by Sheikh Tahnoon invested $2 billion in Binance using the stablecoin USDI from WLFI.
Few months later The US Commerce Department announced on November 19, 2025, that it had authorized the export of advanced American semiconductor chips to HUMAIN of Saudi Arabia and G42 of the United Arab Emirates. The approval enabled both companies to purchase up to 35,000 Blackwell chips (GB300s). This sale is a core component of a broader “Compute Diplomacy” approach under the second administration of President Donald J. Trump, which was solidified following his May 2025 visit to the Gulf, where a series of multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure agreements were signed.
The timing of events raised concerns among Democrats. In September 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Elissa Slotkin called for an investigation into potential conflicts of interest. The focus was on Steve Witkoff and David Sacks, the White House advisor on AI and cryptocurrency issues. Trump faces criticism as ‘beyond unprecedented’ UAE crypto deal raises conflict of interest fears The White House says the president is ‘not involved’ in running his businesses. Ethics experts remain concerned.
However whatever the case, the UAE profited both directly from its investment into WLFI, as the token price has gone up since one year ago, and also indirectly with the promised purchase of AI semiconductor chips.
