A United Arab Emirates-based fund has emerged as the largest publicly known investor in World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency initiative backed by the family of former U.S. President Donald Trump. The Aqua 1 Foundation announced its $100 million purchase of $WLFI tokens, aiming to accelerate the development of a blockchain-powered financial ecosystem centred around stablecoins and tokenised traditional assets.
World Liberty Financial confirmed the investment to Reuters, with the token acquisition marking a significant milestone in the project’s global expansion strategy.
Building a Tokenised Future
The $WLFI token functions as a governance token, granting holders voting rights over protocol-level decisions. Although not yet tradeable, World Liberty stated it is “working behind the scenes” to make the tokens transferable in the future.
“Aqua 1 and WLFI will collaborate to identify and support high-potential blockchain ventures,” said Dave Lee, founding partner at Aqua 1, in the official statement. The fund also noted that its investment and compliance teams will play a key role in World Liberty’s expansion into South America, Europe, and Asia.
Despite its substantial investment, Aqua 1 Foundation maintains a limited online presence. Its X (formerly Twitter) account has just three posts and around 1,120 followers. Domain tracking tools indicate that its website was only registered on May 28.
Regional Strategy and Digital Transformation Goals
World Liberty further announced that it will support a dedicated Aqua 1 fund, focused on driving digital economic transformation in the Middle East. This initiative will explore synergies between blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
Neither Aqua 1 nor World Liberty provided additional comment beyond the published statement.
Launched in the months leading up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, World Liberty has generated hundreds of millions in revenue for the Trump family business. The venture has sparked criticism from Democratic lawmakers and ethics watchdogs, who have raised concerns over potential conflicts of interest. The Trump Organization has clarified that all of the former president’s assets and investments are held in a trust managed by his children.
World Liberty aims to democratise access to financial services by leveraging decentralised technologies and eliminating intermediaries such as banks.
In May, the company’s USD1 stablecoin received a major boost when an Abu Dhabi investment firm selected it for a $2 billion transaction involving global crypto exchange Binance.
