A Circle shareholder has filed a federal lawsuit against Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) and World Liberty Financial (@worldlibertyfi) $WLFI, challenging a $2 billion investment in Binance (@
A Circle shareholder has filed a federal lawsuit against Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) and World Liberty Financial (@worldlibertyfi) $WLFI, challenging a $2 billion investment in Binance (@binance) made by an Abu Dhabi fund. The suit alleges the broader deals improperly benefited the US president.
J. Benjamin Greenberg, a shareholder in Circle Internet Group and a former software engineer at the company, brought the case. In a complaint filed Thursday in federal court in Washington, Greenberg said the action is about the president corruptly profiting from more than $2 billion in payments from a foreign government in violation of the Constitution, according to Bloomberg.
The complaint centres on two transactions tied to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's national security adviser. In the first, an entity he backs agreed to pay $500 million for 49% of World Liberty, four days before Trump's January 2025 inauguration.In the second, announced in May 2025, MGX, an Abu Dhabi state-backed fund he chairs, used World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin to settle a $2 billion investment in Binance.
The complaint describes the purchase of USD1 as a "scheme" to "inflate the value of President Trump's crypto holdings," according to CNBC, as relayed by Quartz. Greenberg claims the conduct violates the Foreign Emoluments Clause and asks the court to halt similar activities without congressional consent.
The suit also frames the matter as a competitive harm to Circle, the issuer of the $USDC stablecoin. Greenberg alleges the arrangement created a pathway for foreign governments to funnel money using USD1, leaving Circle "unable to compete" with its USDC.
Circle has distanced itself from the case. A company spokesperson said the lawsuit was filed by an individual shareholder, not by Circle, and that Circle did not initiate, direct, authorize, or participate in the filing.
A World Liberty spokesperson said the claims are "without merit", with David Wachsman stating the company is compliant with all US laws and regulations. On the White House side, spokesperson Anna Kelly told CNBC the case is "yet another frivolous lawsuit" and said there are "no conflicts of interest."
The case is Greenberg v. Trump, 26-cv-03686, in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.Emoluments Clause lawsuits brought during Trump's first term did not recover money or force him to halt business practices alleged to be unconstitutional. The new case will test whether a shareholder claim built around stablecoin competition can fare differently.
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