Fintech company Perpetuals has walked away from buying an Alt5 payments business, just seven days after announcing the talks.
A planned acquisition of an AI Financial payments unit tied to World Liberty Financial has fallen apart after just one week, with Perpetuals ending talks without giving a reason.
Perpetuals.com, a Nasdaq-listed fintech developing AI-powered trading and prediction market products, said in a Tuesday press release that it had terminated its letter of intent to acquire Alt5 Sigma Canada, a crypto unit owned by AI Financial, the company closely tied to the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial.
Matthew Nicoletti, chief strategy officer at Perpetuals.com, said:
“Perpetuals has decided not to further pursue the acquisition of AI Financial Corporation’s subsidiary Alt5 Sigma Canada, Inc. and the earlier letter of intent has been terminated.”
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Just one week earlier, the company had described Alt5 Sigma Canada as a “profitable subsidiary” and said it was conducting “due diligence” to determine whether the deal could support its growth and product plans.
The agreement was non-binding, and no purchase price or timeline was publicly announced.
The brief statement didn’t explain why Perpetuals changed course. Still, its Nasdaq-listed shares jumped 26.4% on the news, according to Google Finance.
How Alt5 Is Tied to World Liberty Financial
AI Financial was known as ALT5 Sigma until April, when it changed its name and Nasdaq ticker. Its main fintech business operates crypto payment and trading services through products called ALT5 Pay and ALT5 Prime.
The company is closely tied to World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture backed by the Trump family.
That relationship grew out of a deal completed in August 2025. ALT5 Sigma raised $750 million by selling new shares and used about $717 million of the proceeds to buy World Liberty Financial’s WLFI▼$0.0570 tokens.
But investors did far worse. AI Financial’s shares fell from above $9 around the time of the deal to roughly 53 cents on July 14, Reuters reported.
AI Financial Warned About Its Finances
AI Financial reported a $271.3 million net loss from continuing operations for the quarter ended March 28, largely as the value of its WLFI holdings fell.
It also had a working-capital deficit of about $5.5 million, with nearly $40 million in liabilities against more than $32 million in assets. The company said those conditions raised “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue operating over the following year.
Alt5 Sigma Canada also has a separate legal case in Rwanda. AI Financial disclosed that the subsidiary is appealing a 2025 court ruling involving $3.5 million in disputed funds.
The lower court found the subsidiary guilty of money laundering and failing to justify the money’s origin, ordered the funds forfeited and called for the company to be dissolved.
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