Tether&#8217;s reduced fundraising highlights investor skepticism, potentially 
impacting its market perception and future financial strategies.
The post Tether scales back $20B fundraising bid amid valuation concerns: 
Report appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Tether scales back $20B fundraising bid amid valuation concerns: Report

Reports say a wealthy Abu Dhabi investor bought a near-half stake in a crypto 
company tied to the Trump family. The transaction, reported to be worth about 
$500 million, involved an entity linked to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. 
It has prompted questions in Washington and stirred activity in the markets 
where the company’s token trades. Related Reading: Mastercard Stresses Crypto 
Is An Enhancement, Not A Substitute Sheikh A Reported Buyer According to 
reporting by major outlets, Aryam Investment 1 — an investor connected to 
Sheikh Tahnoon — agreed to purchase roughly 49% of World Liberty Financial, 
known as WLFI. The payment was structured in phases, with about $250 million 
reported as an initial transfer. Reports note roughly $187 million moved to 
entities associated with the Trump family, while another $31 million 
reportedly went to companies tied to cofounders. JUST IN: 🇺🇸🇦🇪 President Trump 
says he did not know Abu Dhabi invested $500 million in his World Liberty 
crypto project. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know about it. My sons are handling that, I guess 
they get investments from people.&#8221; pic.twitter.com/AOBosetnpE — Bitcoin Black 
(@Bitcoinblacck) February 2, 2026 Timing And Deal Details The timing of the 
sale matters. It was completed shortly before an important political milestone 
for the buyer’s partner, and that has sharpened scrutiny. Some lawmakers and 
ethics experts raised alarms about a high-value foreign-backed investment in a 
business tied to a sitting US President. Others point out that private 
business dealings are common and that the legal thresholds for disclosure can 
be complex. Market participants reacted quickly; trading in WLFI-linked assets 
saw spikes in volume and price swings as news spread. Trump Responds When 
journalists pressed him about the report, US President Donald Trump denied 
having knowledge of the transaction. “I don’t know about it,” he said, adding 
that his sons run many family business matters. The remark was brief but 
clear: he insisted the family manages WLFI and that he was not personally 
involved in negotiating the sale. Some aides later reiterated that any 
operational decisions were handled by company executives and family members. 
Related Reading: Crypto Hacks Explode: $370 Million Stolen In January Alone: 
Researchers Reactions From Lawmakers And Regulators Reports say lawmakers from 
both parties want answers. A handful of senators have asked for briefings and 
documents, and a few regulators have been asked to look at whether any 
disclosure rules were followed. At the same time, legal experts caution that 
an investment by a foreign-backed firm is not automatically illegal or 
disqualifying. What matters, they say, are the exact terms, who signed which 
papers, and whether any statutory reporting obligations were met. Featured 
image from Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images, chart from TradingView

Trump Says He Was Unaware Of Abu Dhabi Royal’s $500 Million WLFI Investment

Solana price slid deeper into the red on Feb.4, extending its recent downtrend 
as sellers continued to press the market. At press time, SOL was trading near 
$97, down 6.1% over the past 24 hours. The move leaves Solana sitting…

Solana price prints bearish continuation — can bulls defend psychological $100 level?

Avara says “all current and future products” will be housed under Aave Labs, 
and accounts tied to the Family wallet will continue to be “core 
infrastructure.”

Aave winds down Avara, shuts down Family wallet in refocus on DeFi

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood said she would “make a shift from gold into 
Bitcoin” after gold’s run left the metal looking extended on a key liquidity- 
adjusted measure, arguing that bitcoin’s supply dynamics and long-term 
adoption case still favor the crypto asset despite a sluggish year. Speaking 
on a Feb. 2 episode of The Rundown interview, Wood framed the call as part of 
a broader “great acceleration” thesis laid out in ARK’s latest “Big Ideas” 
report, which expects AI-driven capital expenditure to surge and spill into 
robotics, energy storage, blockchain, and life sciences through what she 
described as converging S-curves. Sell Gold, Buy Bitcoin Now? Wood pushed back 
on the idea that bitcoin has “lost its mojo” as gold has outperformed in 
recent years, starting with a statistical point. “First thing you should know, 
Bitcoin and gold are not correlated. We did the analysis […] the correlation 
[…] is as close to zero as you can get so no correlation,” she said, adding 
that in the last two market cycles, gold led bitcoin before the crypto asset 
caught up. Related Reading: Bitcoin Net Taker Volume Sees Third-Largest 
Bearish Spike In 2 Years Her more forceful warning was directed at gold’s 
positioning versus broad money. “You’ll find this […] a chart showing gold 
divided by M2. It has only been—it has never been higher. It hit a new all- 
time high this week,” Wood said, arguing the setup resembles historical 
extremes that coincided with very different macro regimes. “Gold is probably 
riding for a fall […] The last two times it was anywhere near this was in the 
massive inflation […] in the 70s early 80s and […] the Great Depression.” Wood 
said the stablecoin boom has absorbed some of bitcoin’s “emerging markets” 
transaction narrative, but she characterized that as a payments-layer 
substitution rather than a savings-layer replacement. “That’s just for the 
equivalent of a checking account. When they want real savings, they’re going 
to buy Bitcoin, we believe,” she said, tying the view to ARK’s long-term 
upside case. She referenced a bull-case target of $1.5 million by 2030 in the 
conversation, alongside the firm’s previously discussed seven-figure 
framework. Related Reading: 70% Bitcoin Crash Incoming? CryptoQuant CEO Says 
It Depends On This Her core comparative claim against gold centered on 
issuance. “The supply growth of Bitcoin is 0.8% per year and it’ll drop to 0.4 
in another two years,” Wood said, contrasting it with gold supply growth she 
pegged at about 1% on average and suggesting mining output could run higher 
than bitcoin’s deterministic issuance rate. She also pointed to 
“intergenerational wealth transfer” as a potential tailwind for bitcoin over 
time. Wood also offered a more tactical explanation for why bitcoin has 
struggled to sustain upside momentum, pointing to what she described as an 
October 10 “flash crash” tied to a software glitch at Binance and an auto- 
deleveraging cascade. “There was a flash crash caused by a software glitch at 
Binance and there was an auto deleveraging event,” she said. “People were just 
[…] margin called to the tune of about 28 billion dollars […] and we think 
that is just now washing through the system.” Because bitcoin is “the most 
liquid of all crypto assets,” Wood argued it becomes “the first margin call,” 
making it the primary source of forced selling during broad deleveraging. She 
suggested that overhang is now fading, but her comments came before Monday’s 
downdraft that saw bitcoin slide to $74,600. In the interview, she said the 
market was “testing […] around 80,000 again” and expected it to “hold in the 
80 to 90,000 range” absent a major geopolitical shock. “Unless all hell breaks 
loose in Iran […] then maybe we’ll see the store of value come back for 
Bitcoin,” she added. At press time, BTC traded at $78,377. Featured image from 
YouTube, chart from TradingView.com

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