Trump business interests Aqua 1 Foundation, a United Arab Emirates-based crypto fund, has spent $100 million to acquire WLFI tokens, the token issued by the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial Project, and cultivate a close relationship with the Trumps. They have just surpassed shady crypto billionaire Justin Sun and his $75 million investment to become the single largest holder of WLFI tokens.1 World Liberty also profited massively last month from a deal in which Emirati investment firm MGX used the company’s USD1 stablecoin to perform a $2 billion investment into Binance [I83]. In a press release, Aqua 1 claimed that they and World Liberty would work closely to “jointly identify and nurture high-potential blockchain projects”, and said that World Liberty “plans to support the launch of Aqua 1’s Aqua Fund — a UAE-domiciled investment fund ... dedicated to accelerating the Middle East’s digital economy transformation”.2 For all Trump likes to talk about “America First” crypto projects, his businesses are looking very UAE-first. World Liberty also just announced a partnership with London-based Re7 Capital, a decentralized hedge fund backed by the Hong Kong multi-family office VMS Group. The partnership aims to increase USD1 uptake on BNB Chain, the blockchain run by Binance.3 Connections between Binance and Trump have already been controversial, with Democratic Senators Warren, Durbin, and Blumenthal writing a May letter requesting information on Trump’s connections to

A gilt-roofed, gabled mansion with a hole chopped in its side. From within glitters a weath of gold coins. In the foreground stands a lumberjack, swinging an axe at the mansion. The background is a blown-up, half-toned late 20th century Canadian $50 bill.