Two Crypto Billionaires Sit Behind Both the Trump Family Token and Iran’s Sanctions-Evasion Engine
May 18, 2026 – 9:39 am
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Reuters traced $2.3bn in Iranian exchange Nobitex’s flows since 2023 to Tron and BNB Chain, the blockchains established by World Liberty Financial’s two most prominent early backers. No party at WLF has been accused of knowing about it.
A Reuters Investigation
Published on Monday, a Reuters investigation documents that Nobitex, Iran’s largest crypto exchange, has processed at least $2.3bn since 2023 on the Tron and BNB Chain blockchains. Tron was founded by Justin Sun. BNB Chain was developed by Binance, the exchange owned by Changpeng Zhao. Both Sun and Zhao are the two most prominent early backers of World Liberty Financial, the crypto firm co-founded by Donald Trump and his family. There is no suggestion that the Trump family knew about Nobitex’s use of either network.
Reuters’ breakdown of public blockchain data, sourced from Arkham, puts about $2bn of the Nobitex flow on Tron and $317m on BNB Chain since 1 January 2023, with $22.6m on BNB Chain and $550,000 via Tron since the Iran war began in February.
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Four crypto analysts called the calculation sound; independent investigator Rich Sanders said the true figure was probably higher, since public flows are visible only for known Nobitex addresses and the exchange has admitted to switching addresses to avoid tracing.
The Principals’ Positions
The White House response, from spokeswoman Anna Kelly, described the article as ‘bizarre attempts to link President Trump to Iran’s banking system’ that were ‘totally laughable’. A spokesperson for World Liberty said the company ‘has no relationship with Nobitex and follows U.S. law’, adding that ‘World Liberty does not own, operate, or control Tron in any way, and has no authority over transactions conducted on it’. Nobitex said any illicit funds passed through the exchange ‘without management approval or awareness’.
A Tron spokeswoman said the network ‘is a technology provider’ that cannot ‘monitor and investigate every user and every transaction’. Binance said it was ‘an initial contributor and incubator’ of BNB Chain rather than its operator.
Binance’s Corporate Structure
Binance’s corporate-structure caveat sits inside a longer record. Abu Dhabi filings reviewed by Reuters show Zhao as the sole listed shareholder of BNB Chain Technology Holding Limited, the entity to which BNB Chain’s operations were transferred in 2023. Reuters’ 2022 reporting found about $7.8bn in crypto flowed between Nobitex and Binance from 2018 to 2022, roughly three-quarters in Tron’s native asset, with Nobitex actively encouraging clients to use Tron to trade ‘without endangering assets due to sanctions’.
The Trump Family’s Commercial Position
The Trump family’s commercial position in WLF is the structural fact underneath the reporting. Sun’s portfolio of 4 billion WLFI tokens is worth roughly $266m, according to Reuters’ calculations; Binance now holds $3.8bn of the Trump-family token. Abu Dhabi’s MGX.