In early January 2026, World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture backed by members of the Trump family, submitted a high-stakes application to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank focused on stablecoin issuance, custody and digital-asset services. The filing signals a bold push by a politically connected crypto firm into the regulated financial mainstream, and underscores how digital assets are rapidly being woven into the fabric of traditional banking and payments infrastructure. The application comes against a backdrop of robust growth in stablecoin markets and new U.S. regulatory frameworks aimed at integrating digital money into supervised financial systems.
The subsidiary behind the bid, WLTC Holdings LLC, filed a “de novo” charter application with the OCC to launch World Liberty Trust Company, National Association — a federally chartered trust bank that would engage in issuance, redemption and custody of USD1, the dollar-pegged stablecoin that has emerged as the venture’s flagship token. In its first year, USD1’s circulating supply has surpassed $3.3 billion, placing it among the larger stablecoins in the market.
From Crypto Venture to Regulated Bank
World Liberty Financial is not a conventional bank or financial institution. The venture, co-founded in 2024 by Trump family members and associates, originally gained attention with the launch of USD1, a stablecoin designed to be fully backed 1:1 by U.S. dollar reserves and intended for use in payments, treasury management, settlement and cross-border financial flows. The stablecoin project was bolstered last year by high-profile investments, including a multi-billion-dollar acquisition by an Abu Dhabi investment group that used USD1 tokens to purchase a strategic stake in Binance.
Until now, stablecoin issuance and associated custody of digital assets have been conducted by crypto firms under a patchwork of state and financial-market regulation. World Liberty’s grant of a national trust bank charter would make it one of only a handful of crypto-native entities explicitly recognized by federal banking regulators, alongside firms such as Anchorage Digital, Ripple, Circle, Paxos, BitGo and Fidelity, which have recently received conditional approvals for similar trust charters under evolving U.S. policy.
A national trust charter does not make World Liberty a conventional deposit-taking bank; trust banks under OCC supervision do not offer FDIC-insured deposit accounts or issue loans in the way commercial banks do. Instead, they are authorized to offer trust and custody services, which in the context of digital assets allows supervised issuance and safeguarding of stablecoins, custody of other tokens, and potentially conversion services between stablecoins and traditional currencies. World Liberty said it plans to allow conversion between U.S. dollars and USD1 without fees at launch — a strategic feature intended to broaden utility and reduce frictions between fiat and digital money.
The timing of the application is significant. Last year, the U.S. Congress enacted the GENIUS Act, a federal law that for the first time established a formal regulatory framework for stablecoin issuers. Signed by President Trump, the law aims to bring greater oversight, reserve standards and consumer protections to stablecoin markets — making a federally chartered bank structure like World Liberty’s more attractive to regulators and institutional clients alike.
Regulators have been increasingly willing to entertain bank charters for digital-asset firms, driven by broader policy momentum to anchor crypto markets within the regulated financial system. The OCC’s recent clarification that national trust banks can engage in custody, fiduciary and related activities tied to digital assets — and the conditional approvals for several crypto firms — reflect a broader institutional embrace of blockchain-linked financial services.
For World Liberty, the charter would provide a formal supervisory framework for stablecoin operations that could ease institutional participation, deepen liquidity, and expand USD1’s usage beyond the largely retail-driven crypto ecosystem into regulated finance channels. It would also allow the firm to offer direct custody services for institutional clients, including exchanges, market makers and investment firms — a capability often cited as a prerequisite for institutional adoption.
World Liberty Financial’s bank charter bid is noteworthy not only for its financial implications, but also because of its political associations. The company’s website lists former President Donald J. Trump as “co-founder emeritus,” and members of the Trump family are closely associated with the venture’s leadership and governance. While executives have emphasized that Trump and his family members do not have day-to-day operational control, the political connection has invited scrutiny and speculation about potential conflicts of interest — particularly given that charter approval would come from a federal regulator operating under the same administration affiliated with the firm’s co-founders.
Critics argue that these intersections between political influence and financial regulation could create optics of preferential treatment or regulatory capture. Defenders counter that stablecoins and digital assets more broadly require regulatory integration, and that charter applications should be evaluated on their merits under the law. Regardless, the context highlights how crypto regulation and political dynamics are now intertwined in ways that traditional financial markets rarely see.
If approved, World Liberty Trust Company could serve as a bridge between traditional finance and blockchain-native markets, facilitating regulated issuance, clearing, custody, and conversion of stablecoins. In practical terms, this could mean easier integration of USD1 into institutional treasury systems, cross-border payment rails, settlement networks and digital wallets anchored by federal banking supervision.
For institutional investors and corporations, a federally chartered stablecoin issuer offers a degree of credibility and legal certainty that many crypto firms have lacked. It reduces counterparty risk by embedding key functions under OCC oversight, and could spur further integration between stablecoins and traditional financial operations such as corporate cash management, tokenized securities settlement and global liquidity provisioning — areas where regulated trust banks could play a central role.
Despite the potential benefits, several risks and uncertainties remain. Trust banks do not carry FDIC insurance, which means that customer assets could be exposed in the event of a failure — a structural difference from commercial banks that regulators will have to address carefully. Additionally, the OCC has not yet indicated a timeline for review or a decision on World Liberty’s application. In some cases, charter applications for digital-asset firms have undergone lengthy reviews or been met with public debate over risk controls, governance and compliance readiness.
Some observers also question whether a politically connected firm might attract closer scrutiny or higher expectations from regulators, especially in an era when political sentiment toward crypto can shift rapidly. Ensuring separation between operational governance and political influence will be key to avoiding regulatory blowback or public distrust.
The next major milestone will be OCC consideration and feedback on the charter application, including possible conditions, requirements for governance and risk management, and public comment or transparency around the review process. Market participants will also be watching whether World Liberty’s approach inspires similar moves by other stablecoin issuers seeking federal charters as part of their long-term growth and institutional strategy.
If approved, the charter could accelerate the trend of fully regulated stablecoin banks in the U.S., potentially transforming how digital money interacts with the broader financial system. In a time of dynamic evolution in payments, settlement and tokenized assets, World Liberty’s bid encapsulates both the opportunity — and the controversy — at the heart of crypto’s march into mainstream finance.