A shareholder of Circle Internet Group, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump and entities linked to World Liberty Financial, arguing that two transactions involving investors from the United Arab Emirates raise constitutional concerns and bear on Circle's competitive standing in the stablecoin market.
The suit was brought by J. Benjamin Greenberg, who holds shares in Circle. It names Trump and World Liberty-linked entities as defendants and points to the foreign emoluments clause of the US Constitution, which restricts a sitting president from receiving certain benefits from foreign governments without authorization from Congress.
Two transactions sit at the centre of the complaint. The first is the sale of a 49% stake in World Liberty for 500 million US dollars to an investment vehicle backed by a member of the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates. The second involves MGX, an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm, which used USD1 — the stablecoin issued by World Liberty — to fund a 2 billion US dollar investment in the exchange Binance.
Greenberg's filing frames USD1 as a direct competitor to Circle's USDC, positioning the two transactions as relevant not only to constitutional questions but to the commercial interests of Circle shareholders. The lawsuit seeks an order preventing further violations of the emoluments clause, the return of profits it characterises as illicit, and unspecified damages.
Circle distances itself from the filing
Circle Internet Group has said it did not initiate or direct the lawsuit and did not authorise or participate in its filing. The company's position leaves Greenberg's action as an individual shareholder suit rather than one brought on behalf of Circle itself.
World Liberty and the White House respond
World Liberty Financial, through spokesperson David Wachsman, denied wrongdoing in connection with the allegations, according to reporting by Bloomberg. The White House also rejected the claims made in the suit.
The case adds a legal dimension to the scrutiny already surrounding Trump-linked crypto ventures and their ties to Gulf capital, at a moment when stablecoins issued by politically connected entities are drawing increasing attention from investors and regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. For European observers tracking the stablecoin market, the dispute underscores how geopolitical capital flows into US dollar-denominated tokens can become entangled with questions of political accountability in Washington.
