US Regulator Grants Conditional Bank Charter to Trump Family Crypto Firm for Stablecoin Issuance

World Liberty Financial, the flagship crypto venture of the Trump family, announced on August 14, 2026, that its trust company had received conditional preliminary approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to become a federally chartered national trust bank. Upon final approval, World Liberty Trust will be able to directly issue, redeem and custody USD1, the dollar stablecoin the company launched in 2025. The stablecoin currently has a market capitalization of about $4 billion, with reserves held by BitGo. The company must satisfy a series of conditions and pass the OCC's final review before commencing operations. Unlike full-service banks, trust banks generally cannot accept deposits or extend loans.

World Liberty applied in January 2026 to establish a trust company, planning to offer crypto custody and stablecoin exchange services to institutional clients, including crypto exchanges, market makers and investment firms. According to the company's website, 38% of World Liberty Trust is held by entities affiliated with Trump and certain family members. The company previously relied on third-party crypto firm BitGo for stablecoin services; once the approval is finalized, the Trump family business can bypass intermediaries and conduct such business directly.

Crypto operations have generated significant returns for the Trump family. In 2025, Trump earned more than $500 million from the sale of World Liberty's WLFI tokens, plus $263 million from the sale of equity to investors led by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the UAE royal family. Trump himself has accumulated approximately $1.4 billion in income from meme coins and crypto operations. This situation has become the biggest obstacle to the Clarity Act, a bill promoting a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets, which has stalled over disagreements on ethics provisions barring government officials from profiting from digital assets. A procedural vote is scheduled for September 15.

Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to the OCC Comptroller in January 2026, urging the agency to halt approvals of Trump-linked commercial projects. In its preliminary approval, the OCC said the Comptroller and staff had strictly fulfilled their statutory and ethical obligations, completing the application review under established policy procedures, and stressed that the license application had not been fully approved and that the company still needed to complete several conditions, including increasing capital. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the president's assets are held in a trust managed by his children, and there is no conflict of interest.

World Liberty Trust will be managed by a five-member board: Zach Witkoff (the company's chief executive and trust company chairman, whose father Steve Witkoff is Trump's Middle East envoy), his uncle Robert Witkoff (former co-chief investment officer at Chubb), Scott Alper (whose father is president and chief investment officer of real estate firm Witkoff Group), Jeffrey Weiner (former chairman and CEO of accounting and consulting firm Marcum LLP), and Erin Baskett (a member of the FINRA board of governors and founder of broker-dealer Sine Qua Non Capital).

MGX, Abu Dhabi's state investment vehicle, added $2 billion in investment to the company in May 2025, pledging to use the Trump family's USD1 stablecoin in large transactions with Binance. The investment was announced jointly by World Liberty Financial co-founder Zach Witkoff and Trump's son Eric Trump at a crypto industry conference in Dubai. Witkoff said the company is grateful for the trust shown by MGX and Binance, and that this is only the beginning.