A United Arab Emirates-based fund has bought $100 million worth of digital tokens issued by World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture of U.S. President Donald Trump‘s family, becoming its largest publicly known investor.
Aqua 1 Foundation said in a statement on Thursday that its purchase of the tokens, known as $WLFI, sought to speed up the creation of a “blockchain-powered financial ecosystem” with stablecoins and tokenized traditional assets at its heart.
The investment was confirmed to reporters by a World Liberty representative.
$WLFI is a so-called governance token that allows its holders to vote on modifications to the company’s underlying code, but it is not tradable.
This week, World Liberty stated that it was “working behind the scenes” to enable the transferability of the token.
The statement read, “WLFI and Aqua 1 will jointly identify and nurture high-potential blockchain projects together,” said David Lee, a founding partner of Aqua 1.
World Liberty would be able to grow throughout South America, Europe, and Asia with the assistance of the fund’s investment and compliance teams.
Aqua 1 has a small web presence in spite of its expenditure.
According to data from two online domain trackers, the website was founded on May 28, and its X account has only three posts and about 1,120 followers.
In addition, World Liberty intends to assist with the establishment of an independent Aqua 1 fund that will use blockchain technology and artificial intelligence to promote the “digital economy transformation” in the Middle East, according to the statement.
Founded by Trump and his business associates two months before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, World Liberty has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the Republican president’s family business.
Due to possible conflicts of interest, World Liberty has come under fire from Democratic politicians and government ethics watchdogs.
The president’s assets, investments, and commercial ventures are reportedly held in a trust that is handled by his children, according to the Trump Organization.
Without the need for middlemen like banks, World Liberty seeks to provide access to financial services using digital tokens.
It introduced the USD1 stablecoin, which gained momentum in May after an Abu Dhabi investment firm selected it for a $2 billion investment in the massive cryptocurrency market Binance.
