TL;DR:
- U.S. Democratic senators are demanding hearings over a $500 million deal between Trump and Abu Dhabi royalty.
- Abu Dhabi acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial in January 2025, months before the President closed an arms and chips deal with the Emirates.
- The senators also question the crypto deregulation pushed by the Trump administration and the pardon granted to Changpeng Zhao.
A group of U.S. Democratic senators demanded this week that the Senate convene a series of hearings to investigate a $500 million deal between World Liberty Financial, the crypto platform linked to President Donald Trump, and Abu Dhabi royalty. In a letter addressed to Republican Senate leaders —who control the committees and set the hearing agenda— the lawmakers requested that current administration officials testify under oath on the matter.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal in January 2025, an Abu Dhabi investment company backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates, signed an agreement to acquire a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial. Months later, in May 2025, the Trump administration closed an arms and artificial intelligence chips deal with the Emirates, despite warnings from some U.S. national security officials about the risk of China gaining access to that technology. Trump, for his part, claimed to be unaware of the deal with World Liberty.
Conflicts Piling Up on Trump’s Desk
“We have deep concern about this series of events, which raise questions about what else the Emirates might receive —or may have already received— at the expense of U.S. national security, after investing in the crypto company of the Trump family”, the lawmakers stated in the letter. The letter bears the signatures of senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Gary Peters, Dick Durbin, and Ron Wyden.
The senators also questioned the administration’s measures to weaken the enforcement of financial regulations on crypto service providers and the dismantling of the crypto enforcement team at the Department of Justice. Added to this is pressure from the Democratic caucus on Securities and Exchange Commission chair Paul Atkins over the abandonment of a fraud case against Justin Sun, a key investor in World Liberty Financial.
In May, Democrats also launched an investigation into Trump’s presidential pardons, including the one granted to Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao. The case became even more relevant given that Binance accepted a $2 billion investment from an Abu Dhabi fund in early 2025, with the agreement that the funds would be paid in USD1, World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin.
