TL;DR
- Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s group backs StringZ Holding RSC, which owns 49% of the holding company behind World Liberty’s trust bank.
- World Liberty Trust Company received preliminary OCC approval on August 14 but cannot operate until it satisfies pre-opening requirements and secures final authorization.
- Tahnoon previously backed a $500 million purchase of 49% of World Liberty Financial, while the trust-bank ownership adds scrutiny around the venture’s U.S. expansion.
An Abu Dhabi royal and co-investors reportedly control the largest stake in the holding company behind World Liberty Financial’s proposed U.S. trust bank, adding another high-profile foreign link to the crypto venture. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s group is reportedly behind StringZ Holding RSC, which owns 49% of WLTC Holdings, while an entity affiliated with President Donald Trump’s family owns another 38%. The ownership structure places an Abu Dhabi-backed group at the center of a federally supervised stablecoin banking project. The arrangement could shape scrutiny as the bank moves toward final approval.
Abu Dhabi capital deepens World Liberty’s U.S. banking ambitions
World Liberty Trust Company received preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on August 14. If it secures final authorization, the bank would bring issuance, redemption and custody of World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin under a federally supervised structure. The regulatory milestone is significant, but the institution still cannot begin operating. It must first satisfy the OCC’s pre-opening requirements and obtain approval. The OCC decision confirms StringZ as an investor in WLTC Holdings and records commitments that it will not influence the bank, but does not identify Tahnoon as its backer.
The reported ownership adds another layer to Tahnoon’s involvement with World Liberty Financial. He previously backed a $500 million purchase of a 49% stake in the crypto company, a transaction that later prompted Democratic senators to call for hearings into the deal and whether it influenced U.S. policy toward the United Arab Emirates. The new disclosure deepens questions about how capital from Abu Dhabi intersects with World Liberty’s expanding U.S. financial ambitions. Tahnoon also serves as the UAE’s national security adviser and chairs artificial intelligence company G42, linking him to strategically important technology and finance interests.
That context matters because Washington authorized exports of advanced AI chips to G42 in November 2025, months after the United States and Abu Dhabi agreed to a wider artificial intelligence cooperation framework. The trust-bank stake therefore arrives amid an unusually dense mix of crypto, banking, technology and geopolitical relationships. Still, the facts remain conditional: the bank has preliminary approval rather than permission to operate, StringZ’s ownership sits at the holding-company level, and the OCC says the investor committed not to influence the institution. The next step is satisfying regulators before World Liberty Trust Company can open.
