Trump’s Bank Has Arrived: 49% Given to the Middle Eastern Royal Family, 38% Belongs to the Presidential Family
Earlier this month, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted World Liberty Financial preliminary conditional approval to establish a federally chartered national trust bank, allowing it to issue, redeem, and custody USD1, the dollar-pegged stablecoin it launched last year.
The Wall Street Journal on Thursday disclosed the shareholding structure behind this bank.
The largest shareholder is Abu Dhabi royal family member Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan and his co-investors, who hold 49% of the bank's 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 advisor of the United Arab Emirates and the brother of the country's president. He oversees a financial empire worth more than $1.3 trillion, with funds derived from both his personal wealth and state capital. In Western media coverage, he is sometimes referred to as the "spy sheikh."
This is not his first appearance on this chain
In January 2025, four days before Trump's inauguration, Tahnoon and his 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 exposed by the Wall Street Journal in January of this year.
According to the president's most recent financial disclosure, $263 million of that money flowed to entities controlled by the Trump family.
Democratic lawmakers and legal experts were blunt in their criticism at the time: a foreign government official holding significant ownership in the company of a U.S. president-elect was unprecedented.
Now, the same 49% appears in an institution that is about to obtain a U.S. federal banking license. 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 for its stake.
What exactly is this bank going to do
It is not a traditional bank in the conventional sense—trust charters generally do not permit taking deposits or making loans. What it can do is: hold assets on behalf of clients nationwide and complete payment settlements more quickly.
Specifically for World Liberty, this license allows it to directly issue USD1 and self-custody the dollar assets backing the stablecoin. Both of these functions are currently handled by its partner BitGo, an independent trust bank that holds USD1's reserves and retains a portion of the interest generated.
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, there is no longer a need to split it.
And the logic is self-reinforcing: the more USD1 in circulation, the larger the reserves, the greater the interest income. So World Liberty says the trust bank's mission is to drive "mainstream adoption" of USD1 while offering clients new services, such as fee-based custody of their cryptocurrencies.
After the OCC approval, World Liberty CEO Zach Witkoff said the company's ambition is to build "the world's most trusted and most widely used digital dollar." He is the son of U.S. Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff.
The legal entry point for this license was signed by the president himself
World Liberty only began working on establishing 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.
Previously, World Liberty had to rely on third parties like BitGo. After the law, it could do it itself, provided it obtained a federal license. It submitted its application in January of this year and received preliminary conditional approval on August 14.
The Genius Act also stipulates that U.S.-issued dollar-pegged stablecoins must be backed only by specific assets, including U.S. Treasuries with maturities of 93 days or less. Treasury Secretary Bessent previously cited a projection that stablecoins could grow into a market approaching $4 trillion, and has written that "this could reduce 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 furthest ahead on this track belongs to the president's family.
The same regulator, a few other decisions this summer
The OCC has approved a series of national bank charters for crypto companies in recent months, with both Ripple and Circle receiving preliminary approvals. Current Comptroller Jonathan Gould was appointed by Trump last year.
But some applications were not approved.
In early August, the OCC denied Dutch fintech company Bunq's national bank charter application, 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, with the public comment period running through September 17.
Regarding World Liberty's application, the OCC's letter stated: "This preliminary conditional approval is based on a comprehensive assessment of all information available to the OCC, including statements and commitments made in the application and by bank representatives." Final approval is still subject to satisfying a series of "pre-opening requirements" and passing a final examination.
A World Liberty spokesperson said OCC career civil servants reviewed whether the application met "the 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 this 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 UK, where he was investigated 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 in a luxury box at a New Jersey stadium alongside Zach Witkoff.
What remains to be seen
The bank has not yet opened. It must first satisfy the conditions listed by the OCC and pass a final examination.
What is already certain: if it does open, an institution with 49% owned by a senior foreign government official and 38% by the president's family will hold all of the reserves backing a dollar stablecoin, invest them in U.S. Treasuries, and collect all of the interest.
