A new Trump crypto lawsuit accuses Trump and his family’s cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial, of “corruptly profiting” from more than $2 billion in deals tied to the United Arab Emirates. The suit was filed Thursday in federal court in Washington, and it also names Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy and a World Liberty co founder, as a defendant. These are allegations in a lawsuit. No court has ruled on any of them.
The case was brought by a shareholder of Circle Internet Group named Greenberg. Circle is a crypto company and a competitor of World Liberty, but Circle said it did not start, approve or take part in the lawsuit.
At the center of the case is a part of the Constitution called the Foreign Emoluments Clause. In plain terms, it says a president cannot accept money, gifts or other benefits from a foreign government without permission from Congress. The lawsuit argues that two deals involving the UAE crossed that line.
The first deal happened before Trump’s second term began. According to the complaint, an entity backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser, agreed to buy a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million. The Wall Street Journal first reported the deal in January 2026. The lawsuit alleges Trump has received millions of dollars in payouts from that sale since he took office. World Liberty has said Trump was not involved in the deal and no longer holds a role at the company.
The second deal involves a stablecoin, which is a type of cryptocurrency designed to hold a steady value, usually one dollar per coin. World Liberty’s stablecoin is called USD1. The lawsuit says an Abu Dhabi investment fund chaired by Tahnoon and created by the UAE government bought $2 billion worth of USD1 last year as part of a “scheme to inflate the value of President Trump’s crypto holdings.”
“The corrupt purchase handed President Trump millions of dollars in interest and dramatically expanded the circulation of his stablecoin overnight,” the complaint says.
The suit asks the court to declare Trump’s profits from the deals unconstitutional, recover the money he received, force him to disclose any other payments he has gotten from foreign governments through crypto, and award unspecified damages. It also asks that money found to be unlawfully obtained be returned to American taxpayers.
World Liberty denies wrongdoing. A spokesperson said the company is “compliant with all U.S. laws and regulations,” adding, “No one at World Liberty Financial works for the U.S. Government.”
The Trump crypto lawsuit lands as the family’s crypto business is already under a spotlight. Trump reported more than $1.4 billion in crypto income on his 2025 financial disclosure, including nearly $800 million tied to World Liberty. The company’s ties to the UAE have drawn particular attention because, months after Tahnoon’s 2025 investment, the administration expanded the UAE’s access to advanced American AI chips, including for G42, a state backed UAE tech company that Tahnoon controls. Senator Elizabeth Warren has pressed for limits on Trump’s crypto interests and has said the UAE investment in World Liberty produced a $263 million windfall for Trump.
The White House has not commented on the lawsuit. The case is in its earliest stage, and Trump and the other defendants will have the chance to respond in court.
