Senate Democrats Demand Hearings on UAE's $500M Trump Crypto Deal

Senate Democrats are pushing for hearings into a half-billion-dollar UAE investment in President Donald Trump's family crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, and the policy decisions that followed.

Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Gary Peters, Richard Durbin, and Ron Wyden sent a letter dated June 23 requesting multiple Senate committees investigate the deal. Lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi royal purchased a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million. The transaction closed four days before Trump's inauguration last year, the letter said.

Foreign buyers paid $218 million upfront to entities tied to the Trump family and Steve Witkoff, Trump's lead diplomat for the Middle East and Russia, according to the letter. The arrangement was backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's National Security Advisor.

CoinDesk reached out to WLFI and the UAE government for comment.

The investment raised concerns about foreign influence, following a separate major investment by MGX, a UAE state-backed company, that boosted the Trump family's stablecoin market cap by nearly $2 billion overnight.

Within months of the deal, the Trump administration took policy decisions that benefited the UAE, the letter said. In May 2025, it approved a $1.4 billion arms sale to the country despite congressional concerns about weapons flowing to armed groups in Sudan where more than 150,000 people have died.

Treasury created a "Known Investor Pilot" program to streamline investment approvals through CFIUS, a fast-track process the UAE had lobbied for. The Commerce Department rescinded Biden-era chip export restrictions, allowing the UAE to import up to triple or quadruple the number of advanced chips it previously could have. It authorized G42, a UAE AI company chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon, to receive 35,000 Nvidia Blackwell chips in a deal worth over a billion dollars.

U.S. intelligence officials reportedly caught G42 providing U.S. technology used to enhance China's missile capabilities. Though G42 allegedly committed to divesting its Chinese holdings, reports suggest the firm attempted to obfuscate its ties to Beijing by moving its business holdings in China to a new investment firm.

The senators demanded administration officials "explain under oath what they knew and when about payments to the families of the President and his lead diplomat for the region."

"They must also explain how they will restore faith that the Administration is representing the best interests of the American people rather than the personal interests of the President and his close associates. We therefore ask that you immediately hold hearings on these urgent matters," the letter said.

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