BIT MAGAZINE

By BIT MAGAZINE
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An Abu Dhabi investment vehicle backed by UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan purchased a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The deal was signed four days before Trump’s January 2025 inauguration and never publicly disclosed.
Half was paid upfront, with $187 million going to Trump family entities and at least $31 million to entities tied to Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s family; Eric Trump signed the agreement, among others.
Tahnoon has pushed the U.S. for access to powerful AI chips; the Trump administration has pledged to sell 500,000 powerful chips to the UAE annually, including to Tahnoon’s company G42.

An investment vehicle backed by Emirati Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan secretly acquired a 49% stake in
WLFI-16.08%

for $500 million just days before President Donald Trump's inauguration, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation published Saturday.

The deal, signed by Eric Trump on behalf of the project four days before the January 2025 inauguration, was never publicly disclosed. The buyer was Aryam Investment 1, an Abu Dhabi entity backed by Tahnoon, the UAE's national security adviser and brother to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, the Journal reported.

Under the agreement, half of the $500 million was paid upfront, with $187 million flowing to Trump family-controlled entities and at least $31 million going to entities affiliated with the family of Steve Witkoff, the real estate magnate who co-founded World Liberty and was later named U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East. Witkoff's son Zach is the current CEO of the project.

G42 executives helped manage Aryam Investment 1 and took board seats at World Liberty as part of the transaction, making Tahnoon's vehicle the crypto venture's largest outside shareholder, the Journal reported.

The disclosure helps explain a previously unexplained shift in World Liberty's ownership structure. As The Block reported in June 2025, DT Marks DeFi LLC, the Trump-linked firm behind World Liberty Financial, had quietly reduced its equity interest in the project's holding company from 60% to 40%, down from 75% in December 2024. The company did not explain at the time who had acquired the stake.

The math roughly tracks if Aryam's 49% stake came proportionally from all existing shareholders: a 75% stake diluted by a 49% outside investment would leave DT Marks with approximately 38%, close to the figure now disclosed on World Liberty's website.

Sheikh secures AI chips months after deal

The revelation intensifies scrutiny around World Liberty's deepening financial ties to UAE interests. Weeks before the Trump administration announced a framework allowing the UAE access to hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips annually, another Tahnoon-led firm, MGX, used World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin to complete a $2 billion investment into crypto exchange Binance. That transaction helped establish USD1 as one of the fastest-growing stablecoins by market capitalization, with over $5 billion now in circulation.

The overlapping timelines have drawn concern from Democrats. In September 2025, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Elissa Slotkin called for investigations into potential conflicts of interest involving Witkoff and White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks, citing a New York Times investigation that documented the proximity between World Liberty's UAE deals and the administration's chip export negotiations.

World Liberty Financial and the White House denied any wrongdoing in response to the Journal's reporting. Spokespeople told the outlet that Trump was not involved in the deal and that it did not influence U.S. policy decisions. The project has previously maintained that Trump and his family are not involved in day-to-day management, with operations handled by crypto-native executives including CEO Zach Witkoff and co-founders Zak Folkman and Chase Herro.

Tahnoon has been central to the UAE's push to become a global AI and technology hub. G42, the AI conglomerate he chairs, had previously faced Biden-era restrictions on advanced chip access due to national security concerns about the company's past ties to Chinese firms. Those restrictions were reversed under the Trump administration, which in November 2025 approved sales of computing power equivalent to 35,000 of Nvidia's most advanced GB300 processors to G42.

World Liberty Financial launched in October 2024 and has since expanded into stablecoin issuance, DeFi lending, and is pursuing a national trust bank charter to formalize its USD1 operations under federal supervision. The project lists President Trump and his sons Eric, Donald Jr., and Barron as co-fou nders.
#wlfi #UAE #investment

By BIT MAGAZINE

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President Trump announced Kevin Warsh as his pick for Federal Reserve chair following a sharp surge in prediction market odds overnight.
Warsh, a former Fed governor with relatively crypto-friendly views, is widely regarded as a monetary policy hawk.
President Donald Trump announced Kevin Warsh as his pick to lead the Federal Reserve, confirming speculation that intensified overnight as prediction markets sharply shifted in his favor.

"I am pleased to announce that I am nominating Kevin Warsh to be the CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, highlighting his prior service as a Federal Reserve governor, his current role as a Hoover Institution fellow and Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer, and his work as a partner at Duquesne Family Office alongside Stanley Druckenmiller.

"I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best," Trump added. "On top of everything else, he is 'central casting,' and he will never let you down. Congratulations, Kevin!"

Warsh had emerged as the clear frontrunner ahead of the announcement, with Polymarket traders pricing his odds at 95% late Thursday, up from 39% earlier in the day. His implied probability on Kalshi also climbed to 96%, following the president's confirmation that he would announce his pick on Friday morning at the premiere of first lady Melania Trump's self-titled documentary last night.

Warsh, 55, previously served on the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011 under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and formerly worked as a banker at Morgan Stanley, making him a well-known figure in U.S. economic policymaking circles.
President Trump's formal nomination ends weeks of speculation over his pick, though Warsh still requires Senate confirmation before he can begin a four-year term and officially replace current chair Jerome Powell, whose tenure is scheduled to end in May.

Warsh's bitcoin views and crypto investments
Warsh's comments on bitcoin at the Hoover Institution’s Inflation is a Choice event last July have drawn particular attention as digital asset markets digest the nomination. During that event, he rejected the notion that bitcoin poses a systemic threat to the Federal Reserve's ability to manage the economy and instead described it as an asset that could help inform policymakers.

"Bitcoin doesn't trouble me," Warsh said at the time. "I think of it as an important asset that can help inform policymakers when they're doing things right and wrong. It is not a substitute to the dollar. I think it can often be a very good policeman for policy."

Warsh also pointed to the concentration of global engineering talent in the United States, arguing that building emerging technologies domestically creates long-term economic advantages. "It's just the newest, coolest software that will provide us the ability to do things that we could never have done before," he said.

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Warsh has also been connected to the crypto industry through early investments in an algorithmic stablecoin project, Basis, and through advisory and investor roles with crypto index manager Bitwise.

However, Warsh's stance on digital assets remains nuanced and he has at times expressed support for central bank digital currency frameworks — something President Trump has vocally opposed and pledged would not happen during his election campaign.

But why ?
This was not a normal volatility. This was a structural unwind across metals and equities happening at the same time.
First, look at the scale of the damage.
Precious metals collapse:
• Gold: −16.36%, wiping out $6.38 TRILLION
• Silver: −38.9%, wiping out $2.6 TRILLION
• Platinum: −29.5%, wiping out $235B
• Palladium: −25%, wiping out $110B
Equities:
• S&P 500: −1.88%, wiping out $1.3T
• Nasdaq: −3.15%, wiping out $1.38T
• Russell 2000: wiping out $100B
In total, well over $12 trillion vanished, which is more than the GDP of Germany, Japan, and India combined.
Here is what actually broke the market.
METALS WERE AT HISTORIC HIGHS
Silver had just printed 9 consecutive green monthly candles. That has never happened before.
The previous record was 8 green months, and that marked major cycle tops.
Silver had already delivered over a 3x return in 12 months. For a $5–$6 trillion asset, that is extreme.
At the peak, silver was up 65–70% YTD.
Gold was also deeply stretched after a parabolic run driven by easing expectations. At those levels, profit-taking was inevitable.
MOMENTUM PULLED IN LATE RETAIL AND LEVERAGE
The vertical rally sucked in a large wave of late buyers rotating out of crypto and equities. Most of this money did not go into physical metal.
It went into leveraged futures and paper contracts.
The dominant narrative was simple: Silver to $150–$200. That encouraged oversized long positions right at the top. When the price rolled over, liquidation started immediately.
LONG LIQUIDATION CASCADE TOOK OVER
Once silver dropped:
• Margin calls triggered
• Longs were forced out
• Price dropped more
• More liquidations followed
This is why silver collapsed over 35% in just 1 day. It was not sellers choosing to exit. It was forced selling.
PAPER MARKET STRESS VS PHYSICAL REALITY
The silver market is heavily paper-driven. Estimated paper-to-physical ratio: 300–350:1. That means hundreds of paper claims exist for every real ounce.
During the crash:
• COMEX silver fell sharply
• Physical markets stayed elevated
At one point, US silver was trading at $85–$90, and Shanghai silver was trading at $136. That gap exposed stress between paper pricing and real demand.
Paper markets unwind fast. Physical markets move slower.
MARGIN HIKES POURED FUEL ON THE FIRE
As prices were already falling, exchanges raised margins aggressively.
Effective Feb 2, 2026:
• Silver: 11% to 15%
• Platinum: 12% to 15%
Then a second hike in just 3 days:
• Gold futures: +33%
• Silver futures: +36%
• Platinum: +25%
• Palladium: +14%
Margin hikes force traders to post more collateral immediately. In a falling market, this means automatic liquidations. That is why the move felt violent and one-directional.
FED CHAIR CLARITY REMOVED A KEY BULLISH PILLAR
For months, markets were positioned around uncertainty over who would lead the Fed.
That uncertainty supported gold and silver, since hard assets tend to benefit when policy direction is unclear.
When Kevin Warsh’s probability of becoming Fed Chair surged, that uncertainty trade ended.
Warsh is not a new name. He served on the Fed during the 2008 crisis and has a long record criticizing aggressive QE, excess liquidity, and prolonged balance sheet expansion.
Markets had been priced for a more extreme outcome: fast rate cuts plus heavy liquidity injections.
Warsh getting nominated signaled rate cuts with balance sheet discipline.
That shift removed a major support for gold and silver and triggered capital outflows.
On its own, this would not have caused a crash, but combined with extreme leverage and crowded positioning, it accelerated.
This was not a demand collapse. This was:
• Historic overextension
• Extreme leverage
• Crowded positioning
• Forced liquidations
• Margin hikes
• And a sudden policy narrative shift

#PreciousMetalsTurbulence #MarketCorrection