Trump-Linked World Liberty Wins Conditional OCC Trust Charter for USD1 Stablecoin
The federal banking regulator's approval lets the Trump family's crypto venture issue and custody its $4 billion stablecoin in-house, deepening questions about conflicts of interest at the intersection of government and digital finance.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Friday granted conditional preliminary approval to World Liberty Trust Company for a national trust charter, clearing the path for President Donald Trump's family crypto venture to bring its stablecoin operations under direct federal supervision.
The charter, applied for in January, would allow World Liberty to issue its USD1 stablecoin and custody the dollar reserves backing it internally. Both functions are currently outsourced to partner BitGo. The trust structure permits asset management and payment settlement but does not extend to traditional deposit-taking or lending.
For a $4 billion stablecoin now ranked fourth by market capitalization, the shift is operationally significant. Direct issuance and reserve custody under a single federal charter remove a layer of counterparty dependency and position World Liberty to court institutional clients who require a regulated custodian.
Zach Witkoff, president and chairman of World Liberty Trust, called the approval a "milestone" and said the structure would bring "USD1 issuance, custody, and reserve management together under OCC supervision, examined on the same standards that have governed banks for generations."
A broader regulatory opening
World Liberty is not alone. Under Comptroller Jonathan Gould, a Trump appointee who took the role last year, Ripple and Circle have also received preliminary approval for national trust charters. The OCC, housed within the Treasury Department, operates without the bipartisan board structure of other financial regulators.
The charter carries standard conditions: at least $20 million in capital, notification of any material business-plan changes, and the appointment of a qualified internal audit manager. Final approval remains subject to a later determination.
Governance and conflict-of-interest scrutiny
The approval letter acknowledged public comments raising concerns about non-U.S. investors in World Liberty Financial. The OCC stated those investors are not principal shareholders in the trust and disclosed that several, including Eric Trump acting as president of a Trump-family investment vehicle, signed passivity agreements pledging not to influence the bank's operations.
In February, two Democratic senators on the Banking Committee asked Treasury to examine national-security implications of a reported $500 million stake linked to the United Arab Emirates' national security adviser. Democrats have also pressed Gould to release the unredacted application, arguing the public version omits key details on capital structure and business plans.
The OCC stated in its letter that Gould and staff "acted consistently with their statutory duties and ethical obligations," adding that career staff reviewed the application and will supervise the trust through nonpolitical examiners.
Deep Trump-family ties
World Liberty Trust's board and leadership overlap heavily with the Witkoff family. Zach Witkoff is the son of Steve Witkoff, Trump's special diplomatic envoy, and both were among the venture's co-founders alongside the president and his three sons in late 2024. Steve Witkoff's brother Robert, a former insurance executive, and Scott Alper, president of the family's real-estate business, are proposed directors.
The financial stakes are substantial. Reuters estimated the Trump family earned roughly $50 million from USD1 through June 2026, and calculated that World Liberty Financial channelled more than $1.6 billion to the president and his relatives as of April.
For investors tracking the stablecoin infrastructure race, the charter signals that federal regulatory rails are being laid quickly around tokenised dollar instruments. For governance watchdogs, it sharpens an unresolved question: whether a sitting president's commercial interests can receive federal banking approvals without structural firewalls that satisfy both parties.
