What Did The OCC Approve?
World Liberty Financial moved closer to operating a federally chartered national trust bank after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted conditional approval to World Liberty Trust Company, National Association.
The preliminary approval allows the proposed bank to prepare for fiduciary and trust-related digital asset activities, but it is not a final charter. World Liberty must satisfy additional preopening requirements before the OCC will authorize it to begin operations, and the regulator retains the ability to withdraw its approval if those conditions are not met.
“This preliminary conditional approval is granted based on a thorough evaluation of all information available to the OCC, including the representations and commitments made in the application and by the Bank’s representatives,” the OCC said.
World Liberty applied for the charter in January as part of a plan to bring more of its stablecoin infrastructure under direct U.S. banking supervision. The company is backed by President Donald Trump and members of his family, a connection that has made the application a focus of congressional scrutiny.
How Would The Bank Support USD1?
The proposed trust bank would focus heavily on World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin, which has a market capitalization of about $4 billion.
Under the planned structure, World Liberty Trust Company would become the nationwide issuer of USD1 for institutional clients, taking over that role from BitGo Bank & Trust, which currently serves as the stablecoin’s exclusive issuer and custodian.
The bank also plans to provide digital asset custody as a fiduciary, primarily for USD1 customers and other institutional clients. World Liberty has previously said the charter could support stablecoin issuance and redemption, crypto-to-fiat on-ramps and off-ramps, custody and asset conversion.
The institutional focus could give World Liberty more direct access to market makers, exchanges and investment firms without relying as heavily on outside banking and custody providers. CEO Zach Witkoff said the company wants to “build the most trusted and widely used digital dollar in the world while strengthening the role of the U.S. dollar across the global economy.”
Investor Takeaway
The conditional charter could bring USD1 issuance, custody and institutional services under one federally supervised entity. The immediate milestone, however, is final OCC approval, not the preliminary decision itself.
Would World Liberty Operate Like A Traditional Bank?
World Liberty Trust Company does not plan to operate as a conventional deposit-taking bank. According to the OCC, it does not intend to become a federally insured depository institution or qualify as a bank under the Bank Holding Company Act.
It also does not plan to seek a Federal Reserve master account. That limits the comparison with traditional commercial banks while still giving the company a federally supervised structure for trust, custody and stablecoin activities.
The model resembles the route being pursued by several major digital asset companies. Coinbase, Paxos, BitGo and Ripple have received conditional trust charter approvals, while Circle has since won final approval, as crypto businesses seek direct federal supervision and fewer intermediaries between digital asset products and the banking system.
For stablecoin issuers, a national trust charter can be particularly valuable as U.S. rules move toward tighter requirements for reserves, custody, compliance and institutional distribution. Operating through a federally supervised entity may also make it easier to work with regulated financial companies that require clearly defined oversight of their counterparties.
Why Is The Approval Facing Political Scrutiny?
World Liberty’s ties to Trump have made the application politically contentious. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has argued that the president’s financial interests in the company create conflicts because the administration appoints senior officials overseeing federal banking regulators.
Warren previously asked Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould to halt the review until Trump divested from World Liberty. Gould responded that the OCC would evaluate the application under its normal procedures without taking political considerations into account.
The OCC said career staff reviewed the application for consistency with legal and regulatory requirements, including concerns submitted through the public comment process.
After the conditional approval was announced, Warren and other Democratic senators said they planned to introduce the Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act. The proposed legislation would bar senior government officials from owning or controlling a bank if enacted.
The banking dispute is also intersecting with negotiations over the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, where ethics provisions involving government officials’ crypto interests have become one of the unresolved issues.
For World Liberty, the next practical test is satisfying the OCC’s preopening conditions and completing the transfer of USD1 issuance into the proposed bank. If final approval follows, the company would gain a federally supervised platform for expanding USD1 among institutional clients while operating under greater regulatory scrutiny than its current structure.
