Trump's Bank Revealed: 49% Owned by Middle Eastern Royalty, 38% Belongs to President's Family

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

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday revealed the ownership chart behind this bank.

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

An entity associated with the Trump family holds 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 funds empire of over $1.3 trillion, sourced from both his personal wealth and state funds. In Western media reports, he is sometimes referred to as the "Spy Master."

This Is Not His First Rodeo Here

In January 2025, four days before Trump's inauguration, Tahnoon and co-investors, through an entity named Aryam Investment 1, invested $500 million in World Liberty Financial in exchange for a 49% stake. This transaction was undisclosed at the time, only coming to light in January this year through The Wall Street Journal.

According to the latest financial disclosure of the President himself, $263 million of that money flowed to entities linked to the Trump family.

Criticism from Democratic lawmakers and legal experts at the time was blunt: a foreign government official holding a significant ownership stake in a company of the incoming U.S. President was unprecedented.

Now, the same 49% stake appears in an institution about to receive a U.S. federal bank charter. The shareholder structure of the bank holding company mirrors World Liberty, with Tahnoon's side simply using a different entity to hold the shares.

What Exactly Is This Bank Going to Do

It is not a traditional bank as trust charters generally do not allow for deposit-taking or lending. What it can do is: act as a custodian for clients' assets nationwide and expedite payment settlements.

Specifically for World Liberty, this license allows it to mint USD1 directly and self-custody the underlying USD-backed stablecoin. These two functions are currently handled by the partner BitGo, an independent trust bank that holds the USD1 reserves and retains a portion of the interest.

This is the crux of the business deal.

USD1 currently has a market capitalization of $4 billion. World Liberty states that the USD backing it is invested in U.S. Treasury bonds and other cash equivalents, estimated to generate $150 million in interest annually.

Previously, this interest had to be shared with BitGo. With its own bank, there is no need to share.

Furthermore, the logic is self-reinforcing: the more USD1 in circulation, the larger the reserves, and the higher the interest income. Therefore, World Liberty states that the trust bank's mission is to drive the "mainstream adoption" of USD1 while offering customers new services, such as fee-based custody of their cryptocurrency.

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

The Legal Gateway of this License Was Signed by the President Himself

World Liberty did not start setting up the bank until after July 2025, the month when the President signed the "Genius Act."

This law did one crucial thing: it allowed approved stablecoin companies to directly hold the reserve assets pegged to their tokens.

Prior to this, World Liberty had to rely on third parties like BitGo. After this, it could do it all on its own as long as it obtained a federal charter. It applied in January of this year and received preliminary conditional approval on August 14.

The "Genius Act" also stipulates that U.S.-issued stablecoins pegged to the dollar must be backed by specific assets, including U.S. Treasury bonds maturing in less than 93 days. Treasury Secretary Benson previously cited a forecast: stablecoins could grow to a market approaching $40 trillion and wrote, "This could lower the government's borrowing costs."

In other words, stablecoins have clear fiscal significance for this administration, providing new buyers for U.S. Treasuries. And one of the companies at the forefront of this race is part of the President's family.

The Same Regulator, Several Other Decisions This Summer

Over the past few months, the OCC has approved a series of national bank charters for crypto companies, with Ripple and Circle receiving preliminary approval. The current Acting Comptroller, Jonathan Gould, was appointed by Trump last year.

But not everyone has been successful.

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

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

A World Liberty spokesperson said the OCC's career public servants reviewed the application for compliance with "legal, regulatory and policy requirements and considerations for bank approval." The company did not comment on the ownership structure behind its bank.

An OCC official stated that the application review was conducted by career public servants and that the agency "consulted with multiple experienced career government ethics officials" to ensure the process "complied with all government ethics standards and policies."

And Then There's the Money

The $500 million from Tachyon is not the only contentious funding that has flowed into this company.

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

Just two years ago, he was a failed hardwood flooring retailer in the UK, facing a money laundering probe locally and overseeing the collapse of a small crypto startup.

According to 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, Joe Zhou and Zach Witkoff sat together in the luxury suite at the New Jersey Stadium.

Yet to Watch

This bank is not yet operational. It must first meet the conditions listed by the OCC and pass a final inspection.

What is already known is this: if it launches, an institution owned 49% by foreign government officials and 38% by the president's family will hold all the reserve of a US dollar stablecoin, invest it in US Treasuries, and take all the interest.

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