In August, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) preliminarily approved WLFI’s application to launch a national trust bank. It is expected to issue, redeem, and hold USD1, as well as provide cryptoasset custody services, according to forklog.com.
Before beginning operations, the company must meet a number of requirements and pass a final regulatory review.
Tahnoun has retained a stake in the banking sector as well
The stake held by investors from the UAE is structured through StringZ Holding RSC. The entity was registered in Abu Dhabi in April 2025 and, a month later, in the U.S. state of Delaware.
According to the WSJ, Tahnoon and his co-investors are behind StringZ. He serves as national security adviser to the United Arab Emirates and is the brother of the country’s president, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
In February, journalists discovered that another entity linked to Tahnoon—Aryam Investment 1—had invested $500 million directly in World Liberty Financial and acquired a 49% stake in the company. In the banking sector, the investors retained the same stake, but this time through StringZ Holding.
At the same time, during the review of the application, the OCC required the three major shareholders—including StringZ Holding and the Trump family’s entity—to sign passive ownership agreements. They pledged not to seek control of the bank or interfere in its management.
According to the WSJ, such conditions are rarely imposed when issuing banking licenses.
The bank will handle transactions in USD1
WLFI began establishing its own banking division in July 2025—following the passage of the GENIUS Act. The law allows eligible stablecoin issuers to directly hold the reserve assets backing their tokens.
Currently, BitGo is responsible for issuing USD1; it simultaneously acts as the custodian of the reserves and receives a share of the income from their investment. Once World Liberty obtains its final license, the company will be able to transfer these functions to its own bank and offer crypto asset custody services to clients for a fee.
At the time of writing, the market capitalization of WLFI’s “stablecoin” stands at $4.08 billion.
The ownership structure has drawn the attention of Congress
The ties between UAE investors and the future bank have previously raised questions among Democrats in Congress.
Back in February, Senator Elizabeth Warren asked OCC Chief Jonathan Gould to disclose information about Tahnoun’s potential involvement in the banking project. Later, a group of 40 lawmakers highlighted risks related to foreign ownership, national security, and the independence of the bank licensing process.
The OCC stated in a comment to the WSJ that WLFI’s application was reviewed by the agency’s staff with the participation of experts in public ethics. A World Liberty spokesperson confirmed this but did not disclose details of the company’s ownership structure. The White House had previously denied that the president had a conflict of interest.
Investors in Trump’s crypto projects lost $4.7 billion
On August 27, Public Citizen estimated that investors in Trump-linked crypto projects had suffered cumulative losses of at least $4.7 billion. However, the bulk of this amount consists of unrealized losses—meaning the money was not transferred directly to the president or his companies.
Analysts attributed the bulk of investors’ losses to the TRUMP meme coin—about $3.2 billion. Another $1 billion was attributed to the WLFI token, approximately $450 million to the Trump Media crypto treasury, and $9.3 million to the Trump Digital Trading Cards NFT collection.
In the report, the authors cited data from Nansen: of the approximately 31,000 retail addresses that purchased WLFI through decentralized exchanges on Ethereum, 82% were in the red as of early August.
The cumulative loss for these wallets reached $54 million. However, this data does not include transactions on centralized exchanges, where a significant portion of the token’s trading activity is concentrated.
Trump himself received at least $1.4 billion in income from cryptocurrency-related projects in 2025. This is according to his official financial disclosure statement, published in late June. At that time, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly rejected allegations of a conflict of interest.
