OCC Approves Trump-Linked World Liberty Trust Bank
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- The OCC granted preliminary conditional approval for World Liberty Trust Company, N.A., a national trust bank tied to Trump-backed World Liberty Financial, to be based in Bay Harbor Islands, Florida.
- World Liberty Trust Company plans to issue and redeem USD1, World Liberty's dollar-pegged stablecoin, taking over that role from current exclusive issuer and custodian BitGo.
- The trust bank will not take deposits, carry FDIC insurance, or seek a Federal Reserve master account, and committed to staying outside the Bank Holding Company Act's definition of a "bank."
- Zachary Witkoff, a World Liberty co-founder, is listed as organizer, director, and president; approval conditions include a $20 million minimum capital requirement and compliance with the GENIUS Act.
- The OCC dismissed commenters' conflict-of-interest concerns — flagging Trump's family ties, the Witkoffs, and Emirati investors — as outside the scope of its review; Eric Trump signed passivity commitments for one investing entity.
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren has separately called the OCC's crypto charter approvals illegal, arguing these firms function as banks while sidestepping the safeguards that status requires.
- World Liberty Trust Company has 18 months from approval to open.
Why it matters: The approval lets the Trump family move stablecoin issuance and digital-asset custody in-house under their own charter, ending reliance on BitGo as exclusive issuer — while the bank explicitly opts out of being defined as a "bank" under the Bank Holding Company Act. Warren's open objection signals the fight over whether these trust charters evade the safeguards full banks face is only intensifying.
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