The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has granted World Liberty Trust Company, National Association preliminary conditional approval for a national trust bank charter, a regulatory step toward formal banking status for the Trump family-linked crypto venture World Liberty Financial. The application was submitted in January, and OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould signed off on the conditional approval roughly seven months later.
The charter would let World Liberty Trust directly issue and custody its USD1 stablecoin, along with providing asset management and payment settlement services for institutional clients. It does not authorize traditional banking activities such as taking deposits or making loans. USD1 currently carries a market capitalization of about $4 billion, making it the fourth-largest stablecoin behind Tether and USDC.
Custody and issuance duties for USD1 currently sit with BitGo Bank & Trust, National Association; the new charter would let World Liberty Trust assume that role directly rather than relying on a third party. Before it can open for business, the company must meet a series of conditions, including maintaining at least $20 million in capital with at least half held in liquid assets, and it must still pass a final OCC examination.
A Politically Charged Approval
The timeline and structure of the approval are detailed in a press release confirming the preliminary conditional approval. The move has drawn criticism from Democratic lawmakers given the Trump family's financial ties to World Liberty Financial; Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to Gould in January demanding the OCC halt its review of the application until President Trump divests from the company and resolves the resulting conflicts of interest.
Part of a Broader WLFI Push
The trust bank approval lands alongside other recent World Liberty Financial activity, as the project continues expanding its institutional footprint beyond its original token and stablecoin products. For a company whose stablecoin already ranks among the industry's largest, a federally chartered trust bank would formalize a role World Liberty has effectively been building toward since USD1's launch — direct control over issuance, custody and settlement rather than dependence on outside banking partners.
