The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has granted a preliminary conditional trust bank charter to World Liberty Trust Company, an entity tied to the Trump family's World Liberty Financial project. The move opens the door for USD1 stablecoin issuance to move away from BitGo toward the new entity.
What did the regulator actually approve?
The OCC is the federal agency that grants national bank charters in the United States. In a letter posted Friday, the regulator said World Liberty Trust Company received "preliminary conditional approval" to operate as a national trust bank. That status is not final. The company still has to meet a set of preopening requirements before it can receive a full charter.
According to the OCC, the decision followed "a thorough evaluation of all information available," including commitments made in the application. World Liberty filed that application back in January 2026, so the review took more than seven months. It dragged on partly because of political sensitivity, since the broader World Liberty entities are owned in part by President Donald Trump, who appoints the heads of regulators including the OCC. The fact that the president effectively influences the agency deciding his family's business fate became the central point of contention. The OCC's letter also noted that career agency staff reviewed the application separately for consistency with legal and regulatory requirements, regardless of the political noise surrounding the Trump family.
How is a trust charter different from a full bank license?
It helps to separate two kinds of institutions. A regular commercial bank takes retail deposits, issues loans, and carries FDIC deposit insurance. A national trust bank is a different category. It manages client assets as a fiduciary but doesn't run retail accounts and isn't covered by FDIC insurance.
That's why the OCC's letter specifically noted that World Liberty Trust Company doesn't intend to become a depository institution under the Bank Holding Company Act and won't seek access to a Federal Reserve master account. In practice, that makes the application easier to approve, since regulators have fewer grounds to reject a company that isn't taking insured deposits. A federal trust charter also carries another advantage: it lets a company operate across all fifty states at once, without separate approval from each state regulator. That perk is exactly what has drawn dozens of crypto firms to file OCC applications over the past few years.
How does this change USD1 issuance?
Right now BitGo Bank & Trust issues and custodies USD1. Once the process is complete, World Liberty Trust Company would take on that role, focusing on institutional clients.
- Issuer: USD1 would move from BitGo to the newly chartered World Liberty Trust Company.
- The company would operate as a fiduciary trust bank for institutional clients, not retail depositors.
- The charter doesn't grant access to a Federal Reserve master account or FDIC deposit insurance.
- The OCC will only issue a final charter after checking that preopening requirements are met.
The dollar-stablecoin market is still dominated by USDT from Tether, whose market cap dwarfs USD1's. The token already trades on several major venues, among them Binance, and that exchange presence is part of why regulators are paying it close attention.
Why did Democrats fight the application?
In May, Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould, accusing the agency of approving underqualified crypto banks for trust charters. The letter wasn't only about World Liberty. It referred to a broader wave of applications from crypto firms seeking access to the banking system without traditional intermediaries.
"Such institutions want to evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank."
- Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Senator, from a letter to Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould, May 2026
Warren had specifically asked the OCC to halt review of World Liberty's application until the conflict of interest was resolved. Gould refused, insisting the agency was acting strictly by established procedure and would process the application on its normal timeline. Additional tension came from an Abu Dhabi investment firm's stake in World Liberty Financial, acquired early last year. That detail came up repeatedly in public comments during the review. Similar concerns have surfaced around other crypto firms that filed trust charter applications with the OCC in recent years. Critics of the agency argue that fast-tracking such cases sets a precedent where political connections make it easier to enter the banking system.
What happens next with the charter?
After the approval was announced, Warren and other Democrats, including Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Ruben Gallego, said they would introduce the "Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act." The bill would bar senior government officials from owning or controlling a bank. In parallel, the broader Digital Asset Market Clarity Act remains stuck in the Senate. Talks have largely frozen over ethics concerns tied to the president's crypto business and questions about stablecoin yield for holders.
For Ukrainians who buy USDT for hryvnia on P2P platforms, the news doesn't change much for now. USD1 targets institutional clients in the U.S., and the token is unlikely to become a visible player in Ukrainian exchange anytime soon. Dollar stablecoins have become a core settlement tool on exchanges and in DeFi, so shifting USD1 issuance to an entity tied to the president draws attention from regulators and market rivals alike. Still, the precedent shows how the line between crypto companies and traditional U.S. banks keeps blurring.
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