An Abu Dhabi royal and his co-investors stand behind the largest single stake in the holding company for World Liberty Financial’s proposed United States trust bank, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the matter.
The report identifies Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s group as the backer of StringZ Holding RSC, which owns 49 percent of WLTC Holdings. An entity affiliated with US President Donald Trump’s family holds another 38 percent, one person told the Journal. If the venture receives final approval, the planned bank would bring the issuance, redemption and custody of World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin under a federally supervised institution.
The disclosure lands at a politically sensitive moment for the Trump family’s sprawling crypto interests, which already include the TRUMP memecoin, World Liberty governance tokens and NFT trading cards. A Public Citizen report released this week estimated that investors have absorbed roughly 4.7 billion USD in losses across those ventures since 2022, and Democratic senators have previously called for hearings into Emirati dealings with World Liberty Financial.
## Who is Sheikh Tahnoon
Sheikh Tahnoon occupies an unusually powerful position at the intersection of Gulf finance, artificial intelligence and national security. He serves as the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser and as chairman of G42, the Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence company that received authorization from Washington in November 2025 to import advanced AI chips, months after the US and the UAE agreed a broader technology cooperation framework.
His previous involvement with World Liberty is well documented. Tahnoon backed a 500 million USD purchase of 49 percent of World Liberty Financial, a transaction that prompted Senate Democrats to urge an investigation into whether it influenced US policy toward the UAE.
The new WSJ reporting extends that relationship from the crypto platform itself into the regulated banking layer being built beneath it.
## What the OCC decision says
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted World Liberty Trust Company preliminary conditional approval on August 14. The published decision, one of the final major acts of the application process before final sign-off, confirms that StringZ is an investor in WLTC Holdings and that it signed commitments not to influence the bank’s operations.
Notably, the OCC document does not identify Tahnoon as StringZ’s backer and does not disclose the size of the stake. The Journal’s reporting fills in both gaps, describing StringZ as the vehicle through which the Abu Dhabi royal and his co-investors hold the largest single bloc of the holding company.
The trust bank cannot begin operating until it satisfies the OCC’s pre-opening requirements and receives final approval, a process that typically involves capital verification, governance reviews and background checks on controlling parties.
## Stablecoin custody moves inside the perimeter
For World Liberty Financial, the trust charter is the linchpin of an institutional strategy. Moving USD1 issuance, redemption and custody into a federally supervised bank would give corporate treasurers and institutional clients a regulated counterparty, a significant upgrade from the offshore arrangements that have historically surrounded offshore stablecoin issuers.
The 49-38 ownership split matters beyond symbolism. Under US banking rules, the OCC scrutinizes all controlling shareholders of a national trust bank, and investors holding near-majority positions are typically required to pass influence commitments precisely because of concerns about foreign control of regulated institutions.
StringZ having signed non-influence commitments suggests regulators were aware of the concentration of ownership, even if the public record did not name the ultimate beneficiary.
## Political headwinds
The arrangement is likely to feature in an already contentious September agenda on Capitol Hill. Senate Democrats have sought probes into the World Liberty-Emirati relationship, and the CLARITY Act market structure bill faces a cloture vote on September 15 that will test whether crypto legislation can advance amid escalating ethics disputes over the president’s digital asset holdings.
California lawmakers this week sent a bill banning memecoin issuance by public officials to the governor’s desk, a state-level signal of the same discomfort. Against that backdrop, a foreign national security official holding the largest stake in a would-be presidential family bank is certain to draw scrutiny from both banking regulators and congressional committees.
The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment on the report. Neither StringZ Holding nor WLTC Holdings has publicly disputed the ownership figures.
For now, the application remains in the OCC pipeline. The question of who ultimately stands behind the bank has been answered by the Journal’s sources, the question of whether regulators accept that answer with final approval is still open.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
49 percent to Sheikh Tahnoon’s group and 38 percent to a Trump family entity. that leaves barely 13 percent for anyone else. this is a family bank with extra steps
honestly the one decent part is USD1 issuance and custody moving under a federally supervised bank. the ownership split is a separate mess
cleanest structure theyve built, lowest bar imaginable. USD1 reserves answering to a charter beats a whitepaper, i guess
beats a whitepaper until the fed asks who signs off on redemptions during a bank run. the answer being two related families is the part that fails supervision
13 percent float and its basically two families voting. the WSJ was polite calling StringZ a co-investor group
13 percent outside float and this is supposed to pass federal supervision for a stablecoin bank. the comment letters alone will be a novel
two families, 13 percent float, and USD1 as the reserve asset. at some point you just admit the conflict of interest is the business model
and the voting math gets worse. whoever drafts the redemption policy runs the bank during a run, and that drafting seat is the thing the OCC process actually decides. the float percentage is decoration
4.7 billion in investor losses across the TRUMP memecoin, WLFI tokens and NFT cards and the same crowd gets first crack at a trust bank charter. makes sense
StringZ Holding RSC owning WLTC Holdings, wrapped in an Abu Dhabi royal, wrapped in a sitting president’s family. what is this org chart lol
that org chart is a compliance nightmare. every layer added makes the simple question of who actually controls the USD1 reserves harder to answer
49 percent Abu Dhabi, 38 percent Trump family. so who actually answers to US regulators if this USD1 trust bank gets approved
exactly the right question. the OCC gets a charter application where the controlling 49 percent sits in abu dhabi. good luck getting a clean answer on who runs USD1 custody
4.7 billion in investor losses across the Trump crypto ventures per Public Citizen, and the bank application is still alive. Remarkable.
^ because a federally supervised bank holding USD1 would honestly be the cleanest thing they have built. ironic but true
Worth noting Tahnoon also runs ADIA and G42. The man is basically a one-man sovereign fund, not some random royal aping into crypto.
one man sovereign fund is underselling it. he chairs first abu dhabi bank too. the OCC reviewing his 49 percent is basically reviewing a foreign state applicant
4.7 billion in investor losses across Trump ventures since 2022 and the same names get first dibs on a federally supervised stablecoin bank. nothing about this ends boring
4.7 billion in losses and the financing keeps flowing because the name opens doors in the gulf. thats the entire underwriting thesis unfortunately
4.7 billion in investor losses would end any other applicants file on page one. the occ will pretend a 49 percent royal stake plus a 38 percent family stake is a normal chart because pausing it is a diplomatic incident
national security adviser of a foreign country behind 49 percent of a would be US trust bank. the OCC application should be a short read
the occ has approved crypto trust charters with way murkier ownership before. whether they still have the appetite in this climate is the actual question
every layer of that structure makes who controls the reserves harder to answer. simplest question in banking and the org chart is designed to dodge it
49 percent to StringZ, 38 to the Trump entity and 13 percent float was the tell. whoever drew that split knew exactly which question nobody would ask first
13 percent float means whoever holds the other 87 controls redemption timing entirely. a family treasury with a charter, basically
WSJ sourcing on the ownership split but zero clarity on who audits the reserves. that detail will matter way more than the 49 percent headline