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J. Benjamin Greenberg filed the derivative lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia naming Trump in his official capacity along with World Liberty Financial and its affiliates as defendants. The complaint also includes Steve Witkoff the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East among those accused of facilitating the arrangements that allegedly steered business away from Circle. Greenberg who served as a software engineer at the stablecoin issuer from 2016 to 2018 and holds 10 000 shares brought the case on the company’s behalf according to the filing.
The suit centers on two transactions the first of which saw an entity tied to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan the UAE national security adviser agree to purchase a 49 percent stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million days before Trump’s January 2025 inauguration. According to the complaint roughly $187 million of an initial payment flowed to two Trump family entities with an additional $75.5 million reaching them after Trump took office as indicated in his financial disclosure. A subsequent deal involved Abu Dhabi’s MGX investment firm chaired by the same sheikh completing a $2 billion investment in Binance that settled in World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin.
Greenberg contends in the filing that these arrangements allowed foreign government funds to reach the president without congressional consent in violation of the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause. The plaintiff estimates that the use of USD1 for the MGX transaction deprived Circle of between $70 million and $82 million in yearly income that would otherwise have accrued to USDC. “This action is about the President of the United States corruptly profiting from more than $2 billion in payments from a foreign government in direct violation of the Constitution” the complaint states adding that no president in American history has profited from his office so brazenly.
The lawsuit seeks a court declaration that the payments are unconstitutional along with an injunction barring Trump and Witkoff from pursuing similar deals absent congressional approval. It further requests a full accounting of all foreign payments an order directing any unlawful proceeds to the U.S. Treasury and both compensatory and punitive damages. Circle itself is named only as a nominal defendant with the complaint specifying that no claims are asserted against the issuer.
World Liberty Financial called the allegations meritless in a statement issued after the filing surfaced. Circle told reporters that it did not initiate direct authorize or participate in the lawsuit according to accounts from multiple outlets that reviewed the complaint. The White House described the case as frivolous and insisted that Trump maintains no conflicts of interest.
Stablecoin Beat data places the total stablecoin market at approximately $300 billion as of late October 2026 with USDC holding a capitalization of roughly $71.6 billion and USD1 standing near $4 billion. Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC continue to dominate the sector together representing more than 85 percent of outstanding supply according to the tracker. The competitive dynamics have intensified as newer entrants such as USD1 seek to capture share in a market that grew only 0.2 percent over the past 90 days.
Trump reported more than $1.4 billion in earnings from crypto ventures including World Liberty Financial in his 2025 financial disclosure a revelation that drew congressional criticism and contributed to the collapse of proposed digital asset legislation last year. The lawsuit adds to a series of legal challenges that have examined the intersection of presidential business interests and constitutional restrictions. Greenberg’s action asks the court to order disgorgement of any gains deemed unlawful while requiring disclosure of additional foreign payments tied to crypto activities.
