A UAE investment firm chaired by one of the country’s most powerful royals has agreed to a $2 billion transaction using a stablecoin launched by U.S. President Donald Trump’s sons—an unprecedented move raising serious concerns over potential conflicts of interest between a sitting U.S. president and a foreign government.
On Wednesday, Zach Witkoff, co-founder of the Trump family’s crypto venture World Liberty Financial, announced that USD1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin developed by the firm, would be used to complete a $2 billion investment by MGX into Binance. Witkoff is the son of Trump’s former Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.
The announcement was made during a crypto conference in Dubai and marks a major win for the Trump family’s fledgling digital currency business, which has increasingly become intertwined with powerful Gulf state actors.
MGX, the firm making the investment, is backed by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company and AI powerhouse G42. It is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser and a key figure in the al-Nahyan ruling family, who controls a $1.5 trillion investment empire.
The deal is raising ethical and legal red flags in Washington. Critics have called it a stark example of foreign influence entangling with personal business interests of the U.S. president’s family.
“This is corruption,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren, who slammed the deal as a blatant self-enrichment scheme amid pending legislation to regulate stablecoins. Senator Chris Murphy added that the arrangement “looks like a backdoor bribery scheme.”
Stablecoins like USD1 mimic the value of sovereign currencies and are used in large-scale digital transactions. Companies issuing them profit by reinvesting user deposits into dollar-based assets.
This is not the only Gulf partnership involving Trump. On the same day, Qatar’s government-linked Qatari Diar revealed plans to co-develop the Trump International Golf Club and villas in Simaisma, just ahead of the president’s Middle East visit from May 13–16.
As scrutiny mounts, lawmakers are questioning whether U.S. foreign policy is now being shaped by private financial interests.
