World Liberty Financial, the crypto firm with ties to Donald Trump’s family, now holds conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to form World Liberty Trust Company, a federally chartered national trust bank. This doesn’t make World Liberty a full-service bank, but the charter would let it issue the USD1 stablecoin directly, manage and safeguard the backing assets, and operate under unified federal trust law across the U.S., rather than navigating a patchwork of state-by-state licenses.
That shift matters because it could change who oversees the core plumbing of USD1. Reporting says the proposed bank would be able to issue the token directly, hold and manage the assets backing it, and provide custody services under federal supervision. The OCC has also said reserve balances for certain stablecoins should be verified at least daily, pointing to the tougher oversight lens national trust status can bring. In practice, that could help clarify responsibilities around backing and redemption for a token reportedly circulating at more than $4 billion.
Still, this is a conditional green light. World Liberty can’t open doors yet. The bank must first clear OCC preopening hurdles, including a minimum $20 million capital requirement, governance checks, compliance controls, and a formal OCC exam. Importantly, the charter doesn’t grant access to federal deposit insurance or a Fed master account, limiting how far the federal wrapper can reach. For now, this is permission to prove it can operate under these tighter standards, not a finished launch.