WLFI Rallies After WSJ Reveals UAE Royal Bought 49% Stake in Trump-Linked Firm

World Liberty Financial’s WLFI token rose by as much as 15% on Monday, Feb. 2, before giving back some gains.

WLFI is currently trading at around $0.13, up roughly 11% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko, after touching $0.135 earlier in the morning. The rally comes after a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed over the weekend that a prominent royal from the United Arab Emirates acquired a 49% stake in the crypto venture just days before President Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration.

Roughly $250 million was paid upfront by lieutenants to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, national security advisor and brother of the UAE’s president, with $187 million sent to Trump-affiliated entities, according to the Journal.

The deal, which had not previously been disclosed, was signed by Eric Trump and made the buyer World Liberty’s largest shareholder, the report said. At the time of the investment, World Liberty had no live products and had raised about $82 million through sales of its WLFI token.

The deal raises further questions around the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause, which is meant to prevent U.S. officials (including the president) from receiving payments or benefits from foreign governments without Congress’s approval.

Even so, WLFI’s rally suggests traders are treating the news as bullish rather than a red flag. Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at Nansen, reiterated that the move reflects how traders are interpreting the narrative rather than any shift in fundamentals.

“It likely pumped because the market interpreted the news as powerful sovereign and Trump-linked backing, which reduces perceived downside risk and adds future optionality,” he said. “Traders are buying the narrative and political insulation, not fundamentals; short-term bullish sentiment, but structurally still high risk.”

Mike Marshall, Head of Research at Amberdata, noted that WLFI's relevance comes from its “concentrated ownership among politically-connected holders who may have asymmetric access to traditionally opaque macro signals.” He cited tariffs, regulatory shifts, policy timing, and geopolitical uncertainty as examples.

“Our research found WLFI began declining 5+ hours before October 10th's $6.93B cascade, immediately following tariff news, while Bitcoin remained stable,” Marshall added. “This ownership structure means WLFI can function as an early warning indicator: holders operating within shared political networks may reposition before information reaches broader markets.”

World Liberty Financial has faced its share of controversy since launching its token in September 2025. However, its stablecoin, USD1, currently has a $5 billion market capitalization, up from $3.1 billion just a few days ago. It’s now the fifth-largest stablecoin by market cap, per DeFiLlama data.