Trump family crypto venture tapped as part of $2B Emirati-backed investment deal
An Abu Dhabi state-backed investment firm is making a major $2 billion investment in a crypto business deal that could serve as a major boost for Trump family crypto venture World Liberty Financial, according to Zach Witkoff, co-founder of World Liberty Financial.
USD1, World Liberty Financial's so-called "stablecoin" -- a digital asset designed to maintain a stable value -- is expected to be used to complete Emirati investment firm MGX's $2 billion investment transaction in crypto exchange Binance, Witkoff said during an appearance with President Donald Trump's son Eric Trump at a crypto convention in Dubai this week.
"We are excited to announce today that USD1 has been selected as the official stablecoin to close MGX's $2 billion investment in Binance," Witkoff announced in a video recording of the event posted on X. "We thank MGX and Binance for their trust in us, and I think it's only the beginning."
After once deriding cryptocurrency as a "scam," President Donald Trump last September announced he and his sons Eric and Don Jr. were throwing their support behind World Liberty Financial, though its business model was largely unclear. This week's development is the latest example of a foreign entity making a major investment that could boost a Trump family business.
Cryptocurrency and ethics experts told ABC News that the timing and scope of the Trump family's foray into cryptocurrencies raise questions about whether investors -- including those from overseas -- could try to leverage their investments to curry favor with the administration. Critics have raised issues with the Trump administration's regulatory role over cryptocurrencies while he stands to personally benefit from cryptocurrency ventures.
"Essentially, the president is taking the weakness in our current ethics laws that allow a president to continue to hold financial interests in businesses while he's in a position of presidency to just a whole new level in this administration," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan government watchdog.
Trump has yet to release his financial disclosures as president, so it's unclear what arrangements he has made to ensure a firewall between his personal businesses and his presidency. Last month a White House spokesperson told Reuters in a statement that "President Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest."
The USD1 announcement was made during what the organizers described as a "fireside chat" between Eric Trump and Zach Witkoff, a son of Trump's Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, which was moderated by Justin Sun, a Chinese-born crypto mogul who became one of World Liberty Financials' biggest investors the day before Trump's inauguration by purchasing $75 million worth of its other coin, WLFI.
A month after that investment, SEC lawyers under the Trump administration moved to halt an alleged fraud case against Sun.
Zach Witkoff during the event also announced that World Liberty Financial will be "natively integrating" its USD1 coin with Tron, a cryptocurrency founded by Sun, boasting that they will be "minting" hundreds of millions of dollars to billions of dollars of coins from the arrangement.
Much of World Liberty Financial's operation is still shrouded in mystery, but its founders have touted its ambitious goal of integrating their venture into the everyday traditional retail system.
During the event, Zach Wikoff said he wants to walk into a deli in New York City or the Four Seasons in Abu Dhabi and freely use World Liberty Financial's tokens. Eric Trump, in response, jokingly admonished Zach Witkoff for using Four Seasons Abu Dhabi as an example, and not Trump Tower.
Zach Witkoff claimed World Liberty Financial's USD1 coin, backed "one-to-one by short-term treasuries and cash equivalents," will become "the most transparent, the most regulated, stablecoin in the world."
The Trumps and the Witkoffs have together raised at least $550 million for World Liberty Financial coins, according to the New York Times.
During this week's event, Eric Trump also discussed additional Trump business ventures in the UAE, saying that the Trump Organization was able to speed through a permit for a new skyscraper with the highest swimming pool in the world -- expected to be in the Guinness Book of World Records -- just within the last month.
ABC News' Karem Inal contributed to this report.
