UAE Security Adviser's Fund Holds 49% of Trump Family Crypto Bank
Sheikh Tahnoon's investment vehicle controls 49% of WLTC Holdings, the parent of Trump-backed World Liberty Trust Company. The OCC-approved bank faces congressional inquiries over the UAE stake.
An investment vehicle linked to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates' national security adviser, holds 49% of WLTC Holdings, the parent company created for World Liberty Trust Company, the Wall Street Journal reported. Trump family-affiliated entities own 38% of the same holding company, with the rest split among other stakeholders.
World Liberty Trust Company is designed to issue and redeem USD1, the dollar-pegged stablecoin, and manage its reserves under U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency supervision. Co-founder Zach Witkoff described the charter as bringing "USD1 issuance, custody, and reserve management together under OCC supervision, examined on the same standards that have governed banks for generations."
Sheikh Tahnoon's stake sits one level up from the bank, in the holding company that owns World Liberty Trust Company rather than the bank itself. The OCC's Corporate Decision #1385, dated August 2026, confirms the bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of WLTC Holdings. It lists passivity commitments from three entities: DT Marks SC LLC, a Trump family-controlled entity; StringZ Holdings RSC (DE) LLC; and AMGUS LLC, co-founded by World Liberty co-founder Zachary Folkman.
The same order states that investors in World Liberty Financial do not have an investment in or control over the bank, a line meant to separate the bank from World Liberty's outside shareholders. The reported ownership of WLTC Holdings sits alongside that language. StringZ appears in both the bank's holding structure and, by the Journal's earlier reporting, in World Liberty Financial's own cap table.
Representative Ro Khanna opened a congressional inquiry into Sheikh Tahnoon's original $500 million investment in World Liberty Financial. Khanna wrote that the arrangement "may even represent a violation of multiple laws and the United States Constitution." Senators Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim separately sought a formal national-security review of the UAE's stake.
A World Liberty spokesperson has said no one at the company works for the U.S. government and that there is no conflict of interest. The White House has said World Liberty "only acts in the best interest of the American public." The scrutiny comes as Eric Trump new coin discussions have also drawn attention to the Trump family's expanding crypto activities.
Abu Dhabi capital has already passed through World Liberty's stablecoin once. In 2025, the state-linked investment vehicle MGX used USD1 to settle a $2 billion investment in Binance, the first large-scale commercial use of the token. That transaction gave MGX no ownership in World Liberty. The bank-holding-company stake now reported is direct equity in the entity that will control a federally regulated bank, not just a customer relationship with its stablecoin.
World Liberty Trust Company still needs to clear additional OCC requirements, including a $20 million capital threshold, before it can begin operating. Until then, the bank exists on paper, and the ownership structure with a UAE national security official's vehicle holding a larger share than the Trump family's own entities is what regulators and lawmakers will weigh as the Trump family crypto windfall continues to draw scrutiny.
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