At a glance

  • A Circle Internet Group shareholder, J. Benjamin Greenberg, filed a derivative suit in federal court in Washington on Thursday against President Donald Trump, World Liberty Financial and four related companies, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, according to the complaint. He alleges Trump accepted foreign emoluments through World Liberty and its USD1 stablecoin, to Circle’s cost.
  • Circle “did not initiate, direct, authorize, or participate in the filing,” a spokesperson told Cointelegraph. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said Trump had “no conflicts of interest” and called the suit “frivolous.” World Liberty did not respond to Cointelegraph.

The case is Greenberg v. Trump, No. 1:26-cv-03686, in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. CryptoWatchDesk reviewed the 70-page complaint, which asks for a jury trial.

The setup

In a derivative suit, a shareholder sues on the company’s behalf, and any money recovered goes to the company. Circle is named as the “nominal defendant.” Greenberg says he holds 10,000 Circle Class A shares and worked at Circle as a software engineer from 2016 to 2018.

The complaint relies on the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause, which bars a federal officeholder from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever” from a foreign state without Congress’s consent. Trump and Witkoff are sued in their official capacities. According to the complaint, Witkoff founded World Liberty together with his son Zach and members of the Trump family.

It lists two main payments. According to the complaint, on 16 Jan 2025 an investment vehicle backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser, agreed to pay $500 million for 49% of World Liberty, and $187 million of the first half went to two Trump family entities, DT Marks DEFI and DT Marks SC. The complaint also says the Abu Dhabi firm MGX made its $2 billion investment in Binance in USD1.

The stakes

The harm claimed is to Circle’s business. According to the complaint, $73.3 billion of USDC was in circulation on 30 Jun 2026, and reserve income made up about 96% of Circle’s total revenue and reserve income in 2025. “Every dollar of stablecoin steered to the President’s stablecoin, USD1, is a dollar that does not earn reserve income for Circle,” it says.

Greenberg says he did not first ask Circle’s board to sue, arguing that doing so would have been futile.

He asks the court to declare that the emoluments are unconstitutional, to block further ones, and to order disgorgement and damages paid to Circle. He is represented by Karianne M. Jones of Evergreen Legal Strategies.

None of this is a court finding. No defendant has answered the complaint in court.

The read

Courts have rarely ruled on the merits of emoluments claims. Earlier suits against Trump in his first term ended without a final ruling on them. A derivative suit filed without the company’s backing also faces its own procedural tests before the court gets to the merits.

The complaint puts a competitive grievance between stablecoin issuers into constitutional terms. USD1’s supply has been moving the other way lately: on 19 Oct we reported that USD1’s supply fell by $425 million in 12 days. Circle has distanced itself from the suit, and its own regulatory questions include the reserve rules it faces under MiCA review in Europe.

What happens next

The defendants have not yet filed a response, and no hearing date has been reported. Watch for whether Circle’s board takes a position, for the defendants’ first filings, and for any comment from World Liberty. For another Washington inquiry into a stablecoin issuer this week, see Senator Blumenthal’s letters to Tether and Nxum.

For how dollar stablecoins work, see what a dollar stablecoin is.

Related: Circle launches hourly USDC mint and redeem auctions

This article is for information only and is not investment advice.