Key Takeaways
- • Circle shareholder J. Benjamin Greenberg filed suit on Thursday, October 22, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Greenberg v. Trump), alleging two UAE-linked transactions violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause and harmed Circle.
- • The complaint targets a $500 million agreement for a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, bought by an investment vehicle backed by UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and a $2 billion MGX investment in Binance funded with World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin.
- • Circle says it did not initiate, direct, authorize, or participate in the filing; the action is a derivative suit brought by Greenberg as an individual shareholder.
- • Defendants reject the allegations: World Liberty calls the claims "without merit," and the White House calls the suit frivolous. No court has ruled on the claims, and no hearing date has been reported.
- • The complaint asks the court to bar future foreign payments without congressional approval, recover unlawful profits, and order an accounting of other foreign crypto-related payments.
Summary
A Circle shareholder, J. Benjamin Greenberg, filed a lawsuit on Thursday, October 22, 2026, in federal court in Washington, alleging that two deals linked to the United Arab Emirates violated the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause and harmed Circle. The case, Greenberg v. Trump, names President Donald Trump, World Liberty Financial, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and related entities as defendants, according to Cointelegraph's account. The claims have not been adjudicated.
The first transaction is a $500 million agreement for a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture co-founded by Trump and his sons. An investment vehicle backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE national security adviser, agreed to the purchase days before Trump's January 2025 inauguration, according to CNBC's account of the complaint. The complaint says Trump received more than $75.5 million from that transaction after taking office. World Liberty told The Wall Street Journal that Trump had no involvement in the stake deal.
The second transaction involves Abu Dhabi-based MGX, which in 2025 used World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin to fund a $2 billion investment in Binance. The lawsuit does not allege that the full $2 billion was paid to Trump. Greenberg argues that payments to Trump-linked businesses diverted business from Circle and gave USDC, which competes with USD1, a disadvantage. No court has established that USDC lost business because of the deals.
The complaint also cites government actions it says benefited Tahnoon-linked businesses, including Commerce Department approval in 2025 of advanced Nvidia AI chip sales to an Abu Dhabi AI company he chairs, and a Treasury Department bureau's conditional approval in August 2026 of a World Liberty trust bank co-owned by the Trump family and the UAE government. These allegations have not been established by a court.
Circle has said it "did not initiate, direct, authorize, or participate in the filing" and declined to comment on pending litigation. Greenberg, a former Circle software engineer who worked at the company from January 2016 through September 2018, reported owning 10,000 Circle ordinary shares. World Liberty spokesperson David Wachsman called the claims "without merit," and the White House called the lawsuit frivolous and denied conflicts of interest. Bill Burck of Quinn Emanuel, counsel for World Liberty, said the complaint "sounds more like a partisan press release than a lawsuit." Greenberg's attorney, Matt Pelikan of Evergreen Legal, said the suit aims "to stop the corruption and to force President Trump to return the profits to American taxpayers."
The case is pending, and coverage available does not give a hearing date or ruling schedule. The filing came less than two weeks before the 2026 midterm elections, with U.S. lawmakers having sought information on the UAE dealings separately.
The first transaction is a $500 million agreement for a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture co-founded by Trump and his sons. An investment vehicle backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE national security adviser, agreed to the purchase days before Trump's January 2025 inauguration, according to CNBC's account of the complaint. The complaint says Trump received more than $75.5 million from that transaction after taking office. World Liberty told The Wall Street Journal that Trump had no involvement in the stake deal.
The second transaction involves Abu Dhabi-based MGX, which in 2025 used World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin to fund a $2 billion investment in Binance. The lawsuit does not allege that the full $2 billion was paid to Trump. Greenberg argues that payments to Trump-linked businesses diverted business from Circle and gave USDC, which competes with USD1, a disadvantage. No court has established that USDC lost business because of the deals.
The complaint also cites government actions it says benefited Tahnoon-linked businesses, including Commerce Department approval in 2025 of advanced Nvidia AI chip sales to an Abu Dhabi AI company he chairs, and a Treasury Department bureau's conditional approval in August 2026 of a World Liberty trust bank co-owned by the Trump family and the UAE government. These allegations have not been established by a court.
Circle has said it "did not initiate, direct, authorize, or participate in the filing" and declined to comment on pending litigation. Greenberg, a former Circle software engineer who worked at the company from January 2016 through September 2018, reported owning 10,000 Circle ordinary shares. World Liberty spokesperson David Wachsman called the claims "without merit," and the White House called the lawsuit frivolous and denied conflicts of interest. Bill Burck of Quinn Emanuel, counsel for World Liberty, said the complaint "sounds more like a partisan press release than a lawsuit." Greenberg's attorney, Matt Pelikan of Evergreen Legal, said the suit aims "to stop the corruption and to force President Trump to return the profits to American taxpayers."
The case is pending, and coverage available does not give a hearing date or ruling schedule. The filing came less than two weeks before the 2026 midterm elections, with U.S. lawmakers having sought information on the UAE dealings separately.
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