The Constitution's foreign emoluments clause is now being tested against crypto: a Circle shareholder has sued President Donald Trump and World Liberty Financial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging he illegally profited from deals with the United Arab Emirates.

The complaint cites two alleged emoluments. Trump received more than $75.5 million after taking office from the sale of a World Liberty stake to an investment firm backed by UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Separately, a UAE government fund chaired by Tahnoon used World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin to pay for a $2 billion investment in Binance.

Plaintiff J. Benjamin Greenberg, a former Circle engineer, argues the payments diverted business from Circle, a direct USD1 competitor.

World Liberty, its holding companies WLF Holdco and Stablecoin Holdco, Trump family entity DT Marks DEFI LLC and special envoy Steve Witkoff are also named as defendants. The suit asks the court to declare the profits unconstitutional and to order an accounting of foreign crypto payments. The White House said Trump's assets are held in a trust and there are no conflicts of interest.