Trump-backed World Liberty gets conditional OCC bank charter
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- The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditionally approved World Liberty Trust Co.'s application for a national trust bank in a Friday letter posted on the OCC's website.
- World Liberty Financial, which says it is 38% owned by an entity affiliated with Trump and his family, would use the charter to issue stablecoins and bring some services in-house from third-party provider BitGo.
- The charter approval is conditional — the process won't be complete until World Liberty Trust Co. raises capital and completes additional steps, though the OCC under Trump has received 40 charter applications since 2025 (a sharp rise vs. Biden's term), many tied to crypto.
- World Liberty Financial CEO Zach Witkoff, son of Trump's Middle East negotiator Steven Witkoff and also chairman of the OCC-regulated trust company, said the firm welcomes 'continuous scrutiny from Federal regulators for many years to come.'
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called Trump 'the first President in history to approve, operate, and supervise his own bank' and said she and several colleagues will introduce legislation to bar presidents and senior officials from owning or controlling banks.
- Some congressional Democrats are blocking the Clarity Act, a crypto regulation bill, because it doesn't impose strict limits on the president's ability to profit from crypto ventures — a dynamic Warren flagged when urging the OCC to reject the application unless Trump divested.
Why it matters: The conditional approval gives the Trump family a federally chartered vehicle to issue stablecoins backed by U.S. Treasurys and to internalize revenue currently flowing to BitGo, while Democrats warn the OCC's 40-since-2025 application surge is enabling a sitting president to profit from a business his own regulator oversees. Warren's promised legislation signals a direct legislative counteroffensive that could constrain future executive-branch crypto entanglements.
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