The suit, filed in federal court in Washington by a former Circle engineer, alleges that two deals worth more than $2 billion were illegal foreign emoluments and that World Liberty's stablecoin harmed Circle. World Liberty called the claims without merit, and the White House called the suit frivolous.
A Circle Internet Group shareholder has sued President Trump, World Liberty Financial and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff in federal court in Washington, alleging that two deals linked to the United Arab Emirates violated the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause.
The plaintiff, J. Benjamin Greenberg, worked as a software engineer at Circle from January 2016 to September 2018 and received equity in the company. Circle itself is not a party to the suit.
The complaint, filed on Thursday, centers on two transactions worth more than $2 billion combined. The first, it alleges, was the sale of a 49% stake in World Liberty for about $500 million routed from the UAE before Trump took office. The second was a $2 billion purchase of World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin by an Abu Dhabi fund chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, which was used for an investment in the crypto exchange Binance.
"No president in American history has profited from his office so brazenly," the lawsuit says. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages.
World Liberty spokesperson David Wachsman said the claims "are without merit." White House spokesperson Anna Kelly called the suit "frivolous."
The competition theory
The novel part of the suit is its theory of harm. Greenberg argues that USD1's advantages, which he links to the president's position, hurt Circle and its USDC stablecoin, and therefore hurt him as a shareholder. "The President brazenly violated the Constitution ... at a direct cost to Circle," the complaint says.
That framing turns an ethics question into a competition question between two dollar-backed stablecoins, at a moment when federal rules for stablecoin issuers are taking shape ahead of the GENIUS Act's effective date of Jan. 18, 2027.
The first hurdle
Standing is likely to be the threshold issue. The plaintiff is an individual shareholder of a competitor alleging indirect harm, a position that courts often scrutinize closely. Earlier emoluments suits against Trump during his first term stalled on questions of standing and mootness. Those are general observations, not a prediction of how this court will rule.
Circle shares fell 3.4% to $86.62 on Thursday, in a broad selloff in crypto-related stocks. There was no sign the suit moved the stock.
Why it matters to investors
The near-term significance is political and reputational for World Liberty and USD1, rather than financial for Circle. It adds to the scrutiny of the president's crypto businesses ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, and it comes the same day that a senior Senate Democrat opened an inquiry into payments by Tether, another stablecoin issuer.
What to watch
The defendants' response and any motion to dismiss, whether Circle comments, and whether similar suits follow.