World Liberty Financial's trust bank wins OCC preliminary approval. The stablecoin venture, 38% Trump-family owned, must meet conditions before final sign-off.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Friday granted preliminary conditional approval for a national trust bank tied to World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture partially owned by President Donald Trump's family. The OCC's decision, posted on its website, advances World Liberty's plan to issue and manage the USD1 stablecoin from a federally regulated entity.
World Liberty Trust Company, National Association, would be based in Bay Harbor Islands, Florida. Its application, submitted in January, covers issuing and redeeming USD1, maintaining reserves backing the stablecoin, and providing digital asset custody and related services to institutional customers. The OCC said career staff reviewed the application for consistency with statutory, regulatory and policy requirements.
Zach Witkoff, president and chairman of World Liberty Trust, called the decision a milestone. "A national trust bank brings USD1 issuance, custody and reserve management together under OCC supervision, examined on the same standards that have governed banks for generations," he said in a statement. He added that the firm welcomes "continuous scrutiny from federal regulators for many years to come." Witkoff is the son of Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff.
The OCC's letter addressed objections commenters raised over potential Trump family conflicts, foreign investment, stablecoin regulation, FDIC insurance and regulatory favoritism. On its website, World Liberty Financial says it is 38% owned by "an entity affiliated with Donald J. Trump and certain of his family members." The agency rejected the objections as grounds for denying the charter.
The bank cannot begin operating yet. It must satisfy a series of requirements before opening and receiving final approval from the OCC. An OCC official said de novo banks bring new ideas, products and services that increase competition and drive innovation, contributing to a strong and diverse banking system.
The preliminary approval comes as stablecoin oversight shifts. The Mastercard Tests Single-Audit Stablecoin Compliance With Borderless.xyz initiative shows how firms are building compliance frameworks for dollar-pegged tokens. World Liberty's trust bank would operate under OCC supervision, a structure that sidesteps some of the regulatory uncertainty that has kept traditional banks from issuing stablecoins directly. World Liberty's plans go further than most tokenization projects. Tokenized QQQ drove 288% of July volume; Robinhood Chain bets on it highlights the kind of institutional adoption World Liberty's clients would be competing with.
World Liberty Financial carries an Alpha Score of 68/100, labeled Moderate, in the Financials sector. The score reflects the execution risk inherent in the regulatory path ahead.
The OCC's approval signals that federal regulators are willing to charter a stablecoin-focused entity tied to a politically connected family, at least when the application meets standard criteria. The question now is whether World Liberty can satisfy the conditions for final approval without the OCC's staff finding a conflict they missed the first time. The answer will determine whether USD1 becomes a bank-issued stablecoin or stays a project with a preliminary letter.
"Our ambition is clear," Witkoff said in an X post. "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."
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