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A Circle shareholder has sued U.S. President Donald Trump, alleging that two crypto transactions tied to the United Arab Emirates funneled foreign money into businesses linked to the president in breach of the Constitution. The derivative complaint, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, was reported by Bitcoinmagazine.
The plaintiff is J. Benjamin Greenberg, a former Circle employee who says he holds 10,000 ordinary shares in the company behind the USDC stablecoin. Cointelegraph reported that the filing names Trump, World Liberty Financial, its affiliate entities and U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, and that it argues USD1’s rise left Circle “unable to compete” in the stablecoin market.
Also readBernstein Defends Circle's $140 Target, Says USDC Growth Doesn't Need CLARITY Act
Key facts
- The filing is Greenberg v. Trump, 26-cv-03686, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, per Blockonomi.
- A vehicle backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser, agreed to buy a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million days before Trump’s January 2025 inauguration (Blockonomi).
- Abu Dhabi’s MGX, which Tahnoon chairs, invested $2 billion in Binance using World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin in 2025 (Cointelegraph).
- The complaint seeks a declaration that Trump violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause, an accounting of foreign payments, disgorgement of alleged gains, injunctions and compensatory and punitive damages, without specifying an amount (Cointelegraph, Blockonomi).
- Circle said it did not initiate, direct, authorize or participate in the filing; World Liberty’s David Wachsman called the claims meritless, and White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly described the case as frivolous (Blockonomi).
What the lawsuit alleges
The complaint argues that the president and his family built a crypto business after returning to office and invited foreign states to pay into it. Bitcoinmagazine quoted the filing as saying the conduct is “not subtle” and “not hidden,” and that the deals amount to a public official taking money from a foreign power. Trump and his sons co-founded World Liberty Financial; the president stopped participating in the project after taking office in 2025.
Greenberg, proceeding on the company’s behalf in what is a derivative action, frames USD1 as a direct competitor to USDC and claims the foreign-backed deals diverted business from Circle and harmed its investors. The complaints also point to U.S. approval of advanced AI chip exports to the UAE and Trump’s pardon of convicted Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, alleging those actions intersected with the deals — a link Cointelegraph attributes to a February Wall Street Journal report cited in the filing.
Also readCircle Sold Binance $100M in Shares Under Five-Year USDC Deal
The reports differ on framing
Bitcoinmagazine leads on the constitutional-corruption claim and the $2 billion tied to World Liberty’s USD1 product; Cointelegraph centers the alleged harm to Circle’s competitive position and the MGX-to-Binance payment. Blockonomi adds the case number and the identities of the entities’ spokespeople, and notes that no court has ruled on the claims. Each outlet’s account should be read against the others rather than as a single version.
Why it matters
The suit gives critics of the Trump family’s digital-asset ventures a courtroom venue ahead of the 2026 midterms. Cointelegraph reported that Democrats are already using the crypto deals as a campaign issue, including a Senator Mark Warner ad saying the president made “more than $600 million alone from the crypto memecoin,” and that Trump reported $1.4 billion in crypto gains in 2025 per Public Citizen. Circle’s own investors now carry a legal overhang tied to a competitor’s stablecoin.
What to watch
Watch for the court’s initial rulings on jurisdiction and the requested injunction, and for responses from World Liberty and the Justice Department. The midterm elections, less than two weeks away with early voting already under way in some states, will test how much the allegations weigh with voters.
Sources: Bitcoin Magazine, Cointelegraph, Blockonomi
