President Donald Trump says he “knows nothing” about the United Arab Emirates investors behind a reported $500 million purchase of a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, the family-backed firm behind the WLFI altcoin.

Trump made the remark in an interview on CBS's “60 Minutes,” the network's long-running Sunday news program, where he acknowledged that he had no knowledge of the investors involved in the reported transaction.

The Reported Deal

According to the report, investors from the United Arab Emirates acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million — a holding just short of majority ownership. In the interview, Trump did not identify the buyers and said he was not familiar with the parties behind the purchase — leaving the identity of the UAE investors the central open question in the report.

Background: World Liberty Financial and the Trump Family

World Liberty Financial launched in September 2024 as a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform — blockchain-based financial services that run without traditional intermediaries such as banks — with prominent Trump family involvement. Donald Trump is listed as the venture's “chief crypto advocate,” while his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, serve as “web3 ambassadors.” WLFI is the platform's token, which has been sold to investors across multiple fundraising rounds that have raised hundreds of millions of dollars. Trump's disavowal of any knowledge of the reported investors sits alongside those titled roles at the firm.

Existing Ties to the Gulf

The reported purchase would add to World Liberty Financial's existing financial ties with investors from the Gulf region. In 2025, Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX used USD1, a dollar-backed stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial, to settle a $2 billion investment in crypto exchange Binance — a transaction announced by Eric Trump and WLFI co-founder Zach Witkoff at the Token2049 conference in Dubai. Together, the reported stake purchase and the earlier MGX settlement underscore the scale of Gulf capital tied to the Trump family's crypto venture.

This article was first published on COINOTAG: https://en.coinotag.com/trump-knows-nothing-500m-uae-wlfi-stake