LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESS Newswire / July 23, 2026 / AI Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:AIFC)(FRA:5AR1) ("AiFi" or the "Company"), a leading fintech provider of global payments, trading, and settlement infrastructure for digital assets, today issued the following statement from Chief Executive Officer Tony Isaac.
"AiFi today is a far more comprehensive business than some recent mass media reports suggest. Recent media articles have omitted material context, presented comparisons that are misleading, analytically unsound, and shaped by a broader media narrative. Whether those omissions reflect inadequate diligence or a predetermined editorial objective, the result is the same: investors have been presented with an incomplete and distorted account of the facts.
Stockholders deserve reporting based on accurate financial comparisons, complete context, and verifiable information. At AI Financial, we are committed to building upon what we do well, expanding initiatives that create long-term value, and making tough decisions in the best interests of our stockholders. As CEO, I believe our stockholders, customers, and partners deserve to hear these details directly from Management.
AI Financial's mission is to build intelligent financial products and the infrastructure that will support the intelligence economy - an emerging economy in which people, enterprises, AI systems, real-world assets, data, and connected devices increasingly interact and transact through programmable technology. Our vision is to enable AI-powered transactions in secure, useful, compliant, and commercially scalable ways.
As we are on this journey, from time to time, we unfortunately need to correct factual errors, material omissions, and unsupported conclusions that have been assembled into a fundamentally false narrative. This can distort market understanding, undermine investor confidence, and harm stockholders who depend upon accurate and complete information.
I would like first to take this opportunity to correct, for the record, some of the misleading narratives:
A recent article in a news magazine mischaracterized the potential sale of our subsidiary payments business, ALT5 Sigma Canada, as a transaction at a '98% loss.' That conclusion was based on an invalid comparison. The reporter treated approximately $750 million of equity capital raised in August 2025 to support the Company's digital-asset treasury strategy as though it were the acquisition cost of ALT5 Sigma Canada. These were separate and unrelated transactions. The proposed transaction involved the potential sale of one operating subsidiary, which was acquired in May 2024 for approximately $15 million. Suggesting that the value of a single subsidiary represents the value of the entire Company is fundamentally misleading. Like any responsible management team, we regularly evaluate opportunities to monetize individual assets where doing so creates value and supports our broader strategic priorities. Put simply, and by way of analogy, AiFi is not selling the house. We are merely entertaining the sale of a chandelier within it that served its purpose - an asset that may now be monetized in a way that returns a profit to the Stockholders.
Also, some recent reporting has misleadingly compared high-water marks in the digital asset market in 2025 with equity-paper losses in 2026. Comparing the gains from cryptocurrency activity by stakeholders of another company (World Liberty Financial) in 2025 with investor paper losses in AiFi's stock in 2026 is not an apples-to-apples comparison. It is not even apples to oranges - it is apples to automobiles. The comparison combines different companies, different assets, different time periods, and different market environments. Thus, it is a misleading impression rather than a coherent financial analysis. While we strongly believe in its future, the digital asset market is historically cyclical and volatile, and the 2026 downturn has affected the crypto industry as a whole. For example, Bitcoin is down approximately 50% and Ethereum is down approximately 60% from their respective peaks since October 2025.
In addition, multiple media outlets often mischaracterize AiFi as a World Liberty 'Crypto' company. It is worth clarifying the nature of our relationship with World Liberty Financial, because the reporting has consistently mischaracterized it and, in doing so, has obscured something we are genuinely proud of. AiFi is not a World Liberty Financial subsidiary. World Liberty Financial is a valued strategic partner and AiFi's largest shareholder, holding approximately 48% of the Company on a fully diluted basis. Its support has brought meaningful resources, ecosystem access, and strategic credibility to AiFi at an important stage of our development. World Liberty Financial also extended a $15 million loan facility to the Company on favorable terms as a supportive investment in AiFi's continued growth and long-term success. World Liberty Financial's interests are aligned with those of all our shareholders. It is appropriately represented by two directors out of a seven-member Board, while four of those directors are independent. World Liberty Financial does not control the AiFi Board. We are an independently managed public financial technology company with our own governance, operations, customers, assets, and strategy.
Media outlets and market participants should take notice: publishing fabricated, materially incomplete, or misleading reports may, knowingly or unknowingly, assist those who benefit from declines in AiFi's share price, including short sellers and, where unlawful conduct may be involved, naked short sellers.
Stockholders are harmed when speculation, unsupported allegations, or materially incomplete information are presented as established fact. AiFi reserves all rights and will take appropriate steps to protect the Company, its reputation, and its stockholders from false or misleading reporting and any related market manipulation.
The Path Forward
We cannot control media narratives, misleading headlines, or daily market volatility. We can control how we operate, how transparently we communicate, and how effectively we execute. Our responsibility is to strengthen the business, protect the interests of our stockholders, and deliver measurable progress.
AiFi will continue moving forward with discipline and purpose. We believe trust is earned through results, and we intend to demonstrate that trust through execution, innovation, and sustained stockholder value.
In the coming weeks, AiFi intends to issue a separate strategic update outlining Management's priorities for the next 12 months. The update will address opportunities to unlock additional value across the Company's operating and digital asset portfolio, strategies to strengthen liquidity and finance business expansion, and the continued development of our payments, tokenization, and AI-enabled commerce initiatives. It will also establish measurable objectives, key performance indicators, and reporting milestones so that stockholders can evaluate the Company's progress and execution over time. We look forward to that conversation."
- Tony Isaac
Chief Executive Officer
AI Financial Corporation
About AI Financial Corporation
AI Financial ("AiFi") is building intelligent financial products and infrastructure for the emerging intelligence economy, with a strategy spanning intelligent-card issuance, programmable finance, tokenization, treasury-enabled utility, Vault-based identity and permissions, and secure AI-to-AI transactions.
AI Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:AIFC)(FRA:5AR1) is a fintech company providing global payments, trading, and settlement infrastructure for digital assets, including solutions that support crypto-to-fiat and fiat-to-crypto transactions. Built on infrastructure that has processed more than $8 billion in cumulative transaction volume since inception, AiFi serves institutional and enterprise clients across the evolving digital financial ecosystem. The Company is focused on expanding its platform capabilities to support emerging forms of financial activity, including tokenization, software-driven financial systems, and AI enabled applications and autonomous transaction infrastructure.
For more information, please visit www.aifi.co.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or the Company's future financial or operating performance and may include the Company's assessment of the relationship between the market price of its common stock and its estimated net asset value; the estimated value of the Company's WLFI token holdings; the Company's strategic direction, capital allocation priorities, and potential future initiatives.
In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "could," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "potential," "continue," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are based on management's current expectations, assumptions, and beliefs, and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.
These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: changes in the market price and trading volume of the Company's common stock; volatility in the market price of WLFI tokens and other digital assets; limitations on the transferability, pledgeability, staking, lending, or other use of the Company's WLFI token holdings; the availability and terms of any financing or other liquidity arrangements involving WLFI tokens; risks related to digital asset custody, collateralization, staking, lending, counterparty arrangements and protocol operations; the availability of capital to support future development; the Company's ability to develop, acquire, or integrate new technologies; the Company's ability to execute on its strategy under its new corporate identity and ticker symbol; changes in market conditions; regulatory developments affecting the Company's business; and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.
Media & Investor Contacts: AiFi Investor Relations: AIFC@gateway-grp.com AiFi Media Relations: AIFinancial@wachsman.com
SOURCE: AI Financial Corporation
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/blockchain-and-cryptocurrency/ai-financial-ceo-sets-the-record-straight-on-misleading-media-reporti-1195276
