Trump's Bank: 49% to Middle East Royalty, 38% to the President's Family

The bank's money will go into U.S. Treasuries to earn interest.

Earlier this month, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) gave World Liberty Financial a preliminary conditional approval to establish a federally chartered national trust bank to issue, redeem, and custody USD1, the dollar stablecoin it launched last year.

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday disclosed the ownership structure behind the bank.

The largest shareholder is Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi's royal family, and his co-investors, who hold 49% of the bank holding company WLTC Holdings through an entity called StringZ Holding RSC.

Entities affiliated with the Trump family hold 38%.

Who is Tahnoon? He is the national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates and the brother of the country's president. He oversees a financial empire exceeding $1.3 trillion, funded by both his personal wealth and state funds. In Western media reports, he is sometimes called the "spy chief."

Not his first appearance on this chain

In January 2025, four days before Trump's inauguration, Tahnoon and co-investors invested $500 million in World Liberty Financial through an entity called Aryam Investment 1, in exchange for a 49% stake in the company. The deal was not disclosed at the time and was only revealed by The Wall Street Journal in January of this year.

According to the president's latest financial disclosure, $263 million of that money went to Trump family entities.

Democratic lawmakers and legal experts were blunt in their criticism at the time: a foreign government official holding a significant ownership stake in the company of a president-elect is unprecedented.

Now, the same 49% appears in an institution about to receive a U.S. federal banking charter. The shareholder structure of the bank holding company is identical to that of World Liberty itself, except that Tahnoon's side has switched to a different entity to hold the shares.

What business will this bank actually do

It is not a bank in the traditional sense; a trust charter generally does not allow deposit-taking or lending. What it can do is: hold assets on behalf of clients nationwide and settle payments faster.

Specifically for World Liberty, this charter allows it to directly issue USD1 and custody the dollar assets backing the stablecoin itself. These two functions are currently performed by partner BitGo, an independent trust bank that holds USD1 reserves and keeps a portion of the interest.

This is the core of the business.

USD1 currently has a market cap of $4 billion. World Liberty says the dollars backing it are invested in U.S. Treasuries and other cash equivalents, generating an estimated $150 million in annual interest.

Previously, that interest had to be shared with BitGo. With its own bank, it no longer has to share.

And the logic is self-reinforcing: the more USD1 in circulation, the larger the reserves, and the more interest income. So World Liberty says the trust bank's mission is to drive "mainstream adoption" of USD1 while offering new services to clients, such as custody of their cryptocurrencies for a fee.

After the OCC approval, World Liberty CEO Zach Witkoff said the company's ambition is to "build the world's most trusted and widely used digital dollar." He is the son of Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East.

The legal entry point for this charter was signed by the president himself

World Liberty only began setting up the bank after July 2025, the month the president signed the Genius Act.

The law did one key thing: it allowed approved stablecoin companies to directly hold the reserve assets backing their tokens.

Before that, World Liberty had to use a third party like BitGo. After that, it could do it itself, provided it obtained a federal charter. It submitted its application in January of this year and received preliminary conditional approval on Aug. 14.

The Genius Act also stipulates that dollar-pegged stablecoins issued in the U.S. may only be backed by specific assets, including U.S. Treasuries maturing within 93 days. Treasury Secretary Bessent has previously cited a forecast that stablecoins could grow into a market of nearly $4 trillion, and wrote that "this could lower the government's borrowing costs."

In other words, the stablecoin track has clear fiscal significance for this administration: it creates new buyers for U.S. Treasuries. And one of the companies running at the front of this track belongs to the president's family.

The same regulator's other decisions this summer

The OCC has approved a series of national bank charters for crypto companies in recent months, with Ripple and Circle both receiving preliminary approvals. The current acting comptroller, Jonathan Gould, was appointed by Trump last year.

But there are also those who did not get one.

In early August, the OCC denied Dutch fintech company Bunq's application for a national bank charter, citing significant regulatory and compliance issues. In mid-August, Zerohash, which provides crypto infrastructure for Morgan Stanley's E*Trade, had its trust bank application returned due to significant deficiencies; it subsequently resubmitted with a narrower business scope, and the public comment period runs until Sept. 17.

Regarding World Liberty's application, the OCC's letter stated: "This preliminary conditional approval is based on a comprehensive evaluation of all information available to the OCC, including representations and commitments made in the application and by bank representatives." Final approval still requires meeting a series of "pre-opening requirements" and passing a final examination.

A World Liberty spokesperson said OCC career civil servants reviewed the application "for compliance with statutory, regulatory, and policy requirements and factors for bank approval." The company did not comment on the shareholder structure behind its bank.

An OCC official said the application review was handled by career civil servants, and the agency "consulted with multiple experienced career government ethics officials" to ensure the process "complies with all government ethics standards and policies."

There is also another sum of money

Tahnoon's $500 million is not the only controversial money that has entered the company.

Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that a businessman named Guren "Bobby" Zhou invested a total of $100 million in World Liberty through a new company called Aqua 1, becoming one of the largest buyers of the company's tokens.

Two years ago, he was a failed hardwood flooring retailer in the U.K., investigated locally for money laundering, and presided over the collapse of a small crypto startup.

Under World Liberty's policy, up to $75 million of that money was allocated to a company controlled by the president and his three sons, while also benefiting the Witkoff family.

On July 19, the day of the World Cup final, Zhou sat with Zach Witkoff in a luxury box at the New Jersey stadium.

What remains to be seen

The bank has not yet opened. It must first meet the conditions set by the OCC and pass the final examination.

What is already certain: if it opens, an institution 49% owned by a senior foreign government official and 38% owned by the president's family will hold all the reserves of a dollar stablecoin, invest them in U.S. Treasuries, and collect all the interest.