A Circle Shareholder Accuses Trump of Taking Foreign Crypto Paydays

A Circle Shareholder Accuses Trump of Taking Foreign Crypto Paydays

A shareholder sues, naming Trump and his family crypto firm

J. Benjamin Greenberg, a shareholder in Circle Internet Group, sued President Donald Trump and World Liberty Financial on October 22 in federal district court in Washington. The civil complaint accuses Trump of "corruptly profiting" from more than $2 billion in digital-currency deals tied to the United Arab Emirates, in violation of the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause. "No president in American history has profited from his office so brazenly," the complaint states. The case is Greenberg v. Trump, No. 26-cv-03686, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Two UAE-linked deals sit at the heart of the case

Both transactions center on Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's national security adviser. Days before Trump's January 2025 inauguration, an entity backed by Tahnoon agreed to pay $500 million for a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, and the suit says millions of dollars from that deal flowed to Trump after he took office. In the second deal, announced around May 2025, MGX, an Abu Dhabi state-backed investment fund chaired by Tahnoon, used World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin to settle a $2 billion investment in Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange.

An envoy and four related companies are also defendants

Besides Trump, sued in his official capacity, the defendants include World Liberty Financial LLC, four related limited liability companies, and U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff in his official capacity. Trump co-founded World Liberty months before the 2024 election with his sons Donald Jr., Eric and Barron; Witkoff's son Zach is also a co-founder. The venture issued the WLFI token and the USD1 stablecoin. The complaint says Tahnoon orchestrated a scheme to inflate the value of Trump's crypto holdings through the $2 billion USD1 purchase.

The White House calls it frivolous while the firm claims full compliance

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly called the suit "yet another frivolous lawsuit" echoing "the same, tired narrative that Democrats have pushed" for a decade, adding that "there are no conflicts of interest." World Liberty spokesperson David Wachsman said the company "is compliant with all U.S. laws and regulations," that no one at the firm works for the U.S. government, and that the claims are "without merit" and will be resolved in court.

Circle's reserve income is allegedly bleeding to a rival stablecoin

Filed derivatively on behalf of Circle, the suit argues USD1 competes head to head with Circle's USDC and that both issuers live off interest on reserves, which made up the vast bulk of Circle's revenue — about 95% in its Q2 2026 filing. "Every dollar of stablecoin steered to the President's stablecoin, USD1, is a dollar that does not earn reserve income for Circle," the complaint states, putting the lost income at roughly $70 million to $82 million a year. Greenberg asks the court to declare the profits unconstitutional, block further violations, order an accounting of all foreign crypto emoluments, force disgorgement of illegal gains, and award compensatory and punitive damages. Trump's 2025 annual financial disclosure, released last June, showed at least $1.4 billion in 2025 crypto income, including $526 million from World Liberty.