Perpetuals.com, the Tokyo-headquartered crypto infrastructure company, has ended discussions to acquire the payments business of AI Financial Corporation, the firm formerly known as Alt5 Sigma with ties to the Trump family’s crypto ventures. The deal, which would have been valued at up to $15 million, never progressed past the exploratory stage.

The collapse is notable not just for what it says about Perpetuals.com’s appetite for acquisitions, but for what it reveals about the trajectory of AI Financial’s payments arm, a unit the company acquired just last year for $750 million. Selling it for a fraction of that price would have been a remarkable markdown. Now even that fire-sale exit has evaporated.

What the deal looked like before it fell apart

Perpetuals.com signed a non-binding term sheet around July 7, 2026, to explore the acquisition. The proposed structure included $5 million in Perpetuals.com stock upfront, with an additional $10 million contingent on revenue targets being met.

Beyond the straight acquisition, the two sides had also discussed a potential collaboration. Perpetuals.com would have distributed AI Financial’s stablecoin, USD1, across European markets while licensing its trading engine. That piece of the conversation appears to have stalled alongside the broader deal.

As of July 8-9, sources indicated that due diligence was still underway and no formal agreements had been reached. The talks have since ended entirely.

The Trump connection and AI Financial’s tangled history

AI Financial previously transacted with World Liberty Financial, the DeFi protocol associated with the Trump family, in a deal involving approximately $1.5 billion in WLFI tokens. That transaction was part of the $750 million acquisition of the payments arm in 2025. World Liberty Financial was co-founded in 2024 by Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Zach Witkoff.

What Perpetuals.com was after, and why it walked

Perpetuals.com is licensed for EU crypto products and has built its business around institutional-grade derivatives infrastructure. The company’s interest in AI Financial’s payments business was clearly strategic: it wanted to expand its European footprint and add payment rails to complement its existing derivatives offering.

The USD1 stablecoin distribution angle was arguably the more interesting piece. Europe’s crypto market is undergoing a regulatory transformation under MiCA, the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, which creates both barriers to entry and competitive advantages for properly licensed operators.

What this means for investors

For traders watching the stablecoin sector, the failed USD1 distribution deal removes what could have been a meaningful European distribution channel. Stablecoin competition in Europe is intensifying, with Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT both jockeying for MiCA-compliant market share. USD1 just lost a potential partner that could have accelerated its regional penetration.