UAE Pours $100M Into Trump-Affiliated WLFI Token to Power Blockchain and Crypto Ecosystem

• Aqua1 has poured $100 million into WLFI, which is over three times what Tron founder Justin Sun put in. 
• Even though the announcement left plenty of details unclear, it is clear that both companies have agreed to back BlockRock RWA tokenization.

World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture co-founded by Donald Trump’s three sons, just landed a major partnership with the Aqua1 Foundation, a rising Web3 investment group based in the UAE. In a big announcement on Thursday, the two revealed that Aqua1 has invested a massive $100 million into WLFI tokens, the native governance token of the World Liberty Financial platform. This is one of the largest known single investments into the project so far, signaling serious confidence in its future.

It marks a strategic push to position WLFI at the forefront of real-world asset tokenization, stablecoin development, and decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure. Aqua1 is now one of the largest stakeholders in the WLFI ecosystem. Its mission includes supporting initiatives in areas like tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), stablecoins, blockchain infrastructure and AI, and digital finance innovation.

In fact, this $100 million investment propels Aqua1 ahead of previous heavyweight backer Justin Sun, the founder of TRON, who committed $30 million to the same project last November, just after WLFI launched in October. With this latest move, the Trump family’s deepening involvement in the global crypto space becomes even clearer, adding a new layer of political and financial intrigue to the already fast-evolving narrative of digital finance and tokenized assets.

“We’re excited to work hand-in-hand with the team at Aqua 1,” Zak Folkman, Co-Founder of World Liberty Financial, said.

“Aligning with Aqua 1 validates our blueprint for global financial innovation, as we have a joint mission to bring digital assets to the masses and strengthen our nation’s standing as a champion and leader of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.”

Ethics Controversy

This coincides with something that’s gone mostly under the radar, over the past few days, the Trump family quietly trimmed down its stake in the crypto company World Liberty Financial. Their ownership dropped from 60% to 40%, based on some small, easy-to-miss updates posted on the company’s website. Interestingly, by December 2024, Trump had reportedly made about $57 million from the WLF project alone.

Trump’s private events on 22 May to reward the 25 leading memecoin buyers of $Trump have sparked strong criticism of the president from ethics watchdogsxploiting his office for personal gain

Now, in response to this growing entanglement between public figures and crypto, Democrats in Congress are stepping in. They’ve introduced the COIN Act, which stands for Curbing Officials’ Income and Nondisclosure Act. It was proposed by Senator Adam Schiff and has support from nine other Democrats.

As mentioned in our previous news brief, the bill is aimed directly at public officials,  including President Donald Trump, and it’s designed to close what lawmakers see as serious ethical gaps, especially with Trump’s rising presence in the crypto world. Under the proposal, restrictions would kick in 180 days before someone takes office, and the rules would also apply to immediate family members, preventing them from engaging in the same activities and avoiding any possible loopholes.