On June 26, an obscure entity called Aqua1 Foundation, which said it was based in the United Arab Emirates, announced that it was purchasing $100 million worth of WLFI tokens, the largest purchase at the time. A few months later, the Financial Times reportedly discovered a link that hilariously links Trump’s crypto empire to a group of now-disbanded trading floor firms.
The mysterious Chinese businessman behind Aqua1, who met with Eric Trump in Dubai, was Guren “Bobby” Zhou, who holds senior positions at several companies and is under investigation in Britain for money laundering, according to Britain’s National Crime Agency and a document filed in an immigration case at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
“The Chinese businessman who met with Eric Trump in Dubai was Guren “Bobby” Zhou, who holds senior positions in several companies and is under investigation in Britain for money laundering. »
– Steven G Young (@youngsteveng) October 28, 2025
Trump Crypto Empire and Its Hilarious Ties to Thirteen Now-Defunct British Flooring Companies
A group called Aqua Labs Investment LLC told Reuters at the time of the $100 million WLFI .cwp-coin-chart svg path { Stroke-width: 0.65 !important; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-graph-container.positive svg path: nth-of-type (2) { trait: #008868 !important; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-coin-trend.positive { color: #008868 !important; background-color: transparent !important; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-coin-popup-holder .cwp-coin-trend.positive { border: 1px solid #008868; border-radius: 3px; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-coin-trend.positive::before { border-bottom: 4px solid #008868 !important; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-coin-price-holder .cwp-coin-trend-holder .cwp-trend { background-color: transparent !important; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-graph-container.negative svg path: nth-of-type (2) { trait: #A90C0C !important; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-coin-popup-holder .cwp-coin-trend.negative { border: 1px solid #A90C0C; border-radius: 3px; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-coin-trend.negative { color: #A90C0C !important; background-color: transparent !important; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-coin-trend.negative::before { border-top: 4px solid #A90C0C !important; }
Official World Liberty Financial
4.07%
Official World Liberty Financial
WLFI
Price
$0.1476
4.07% /24h
Volume in 24 hours
$192.10 million
Price 7d
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Buy that it was “a business decision consistent with the focus on developing regulated and scalable digital asset ecosystems.”
An Aqua1 spokesperson added: “Mr Guren (“Bobby”) Zhou has never been convicted of financial crime in any jurisdiction, and any implication to the contrary is defamatory and false.
However, in the Financial Times article it alleges that Companies House shows Mr Guren Zhou worked as a director at 13 overlapping UK flooring companies, including Iwood Flooring, Glamorous Spirit, Stile Interiors, Underlay Republic and Flooring Republic.
All companies listed operated between Southampton, Preston and London and were active between 2008 and 2019. The flooring companies listed have all since been dissolved.
Interestingly, Anbo Commercial, Anbo UK, Anbo Investments, Anbo Stile and Anbo International, of which Zhou was among the directors, were among the last to be dissolved.
The Anbo website remains operational and describes how the group was founded by “well-respected timber manufacturer” Zhou Senior in Shanghai in 1989. Exports to the US began in 1991. Bobby Zhou eventually took over and brought the business with him to the UK around 2005.
Aqua 1 Announces Strategic Purchase of $100M of World Liberty Financial Governance Tokens to Help Shape and Accelerate Adoption of Decentralized Finance
– Aqua1 Foundation (@Aqua1Fndn) July 10, 2025
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Timeline of Anbo’s pivot, from flooring to crypto investments
Now we have the story of how a Chinese manufacturing company ended up in the UK and was run by the face of Aqua1, Bobby Zhou. How did Zhou end up in Dubai, meet the president’s son, and invest $100 million in Trump’s crypto empire through his WLFI token?
In 2017, Anbo bought Leeds-based online retailer Posh Flooring, gaining a foothold in the northern England laminate market. A report at the time said the merger would “simultaneously support Posh Flooring’s expansion in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.”
This gives us a clear idea of how Zhou ended up in Dubai, but it still leaves us perplexed as to how, just eight years ago, the Chinese businessman was expanding a luxury flooring business from the UK to the UAE.
This is clarified by an administrator’s report in 2018, which stated:
“In 2017, the interior design and construction industries changed to such an extent that management could no longer predict demand for these products. Between January and November 2017, the company (Anbo International) averaged a turnover of approximately £523,000 per month. During the latest period, from December 2017 to March 2018, average sales were approximately £94,000 per month. month “.
According to the Anbo website, between 2018 and 2023, the company expanded into the following sectors: global banking, technology, medicine, biotechnology, wealth management, metaverse sector and entertainment.
Looking at this timeline, it is clear that the obvious next step for Zhou and his company Anbo was the cryptocurrency sector. It’s a humorous turn of events that in less than eight years, Zhou went from supplying trading floors in the UK to striking nine-figure crypto deals with Eric Trump and Trump’s wider crypto empire.
The Trump-backed crypto asset WLFI has a market capitalization of approximately $4.1 billion, making it the 42nd largest digital asset by market capitalization, and has a daily trading volume of $246 million, according to CoinGecko data.
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