A Circle Internet Group shareholder has filed a derivative lawsuit over two UAE-linked cryptocurrency transactions involving World Liberty Financial, alleging that the arrangements violated the U.S. Constitution and harmed Circle's competitive position. The complaint, filed October 22 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, names President Donald Trump in his official capacity, World Liberty entities and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff. The allegations have not been adjudicated.

Two transactions at the center of the case

Plaintiff J. Benjamin Greenberg, a former Circle employee who says he owns 10,000 ordinary shares, brought the action on Circle's behalf. The complaint first points to an alleged agreement under which a vehicle backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan would pay $500 million for a 49% stake in World Liberty. According to the filing and independent reports, the agreement was reached shortly before Trump's January 2025 inauguration.

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The second transaction is MGX's $2 billion investment in Binance, announced in March 2025. World Liberty later said the deal would be settled using USD1, its dollar-linked stablecoin. The complaint argues that using USD1 for the investment generated benefits for World Liberty and gave the token an advantage over competing stablecoins, including Circle's USDC. It characterizes the alleged benefits as foreign emoluments and asks the court to stop similar transactions.

Circle says it did not authorize the lawsuit

Circle is listed as a nominal defendant because the case is derivative, meaning the shareholder is seeking relief for the company rather than claiming only a personal loss. Circle told Cointelegraph that it did not initiate, direct, authorize or participate in the action. The company has not adopted Greenberg's allegations, and the complaint does not represent a regulatory finding against World Liberty, Binance, MGX or Circle.

Greenberg alleges that the arrangements weakened Circle by directing a major transaction through USD1 instead of USDC and by changing the competitive landscape for dollar-backed tokens. Whether those assertions establish a legally recognizable injury to Circle will be a threshold issue. The defendants can contest the shareholder's standing, the factual allegations and the constitutional theory before the court reaches any remedy.

Defendants reject the claims

The White House described the lawsuit as frivolous and said neither the president nor his family had engaged in conflicts of interest, according to Bloomberg. World Liberty called the claims meritless and said it follows applicable laws and regulations. Those responses directly dispute the complaint's central premise. No judicial determination has been made about the legality of either transaction or about any benefit allegedly received by the defendants.

What the plaintiff is seeking

The complaint seeks declarations that the challenged conduct violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause, injunctions against further alleged violations, an accounting, disgorgement and damages for Circle. It also asks for costs and other relief the court considers appropriate. A request for relief does not establish entitlement to it, and the case could turn on procedural questions before the court considers the underlying transactions.

The filing adds a corporate-law dimension to scrutiny of the Trump family's crypto interests by tying the constitutional claims to alleged competitive harm at a publicly traded stablecoin issuer. It also highlights the growing commercial stakes around which dollar token is chosen for large cross-border deals. For now, the case records one shareholder's allegations and the defendants' denials; discovery, motions and any eventual ruling will determine whether those claims advance.

Sources

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