The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted World Liberty Trust Company “preliminary conditional approval” on 14 August 2026 to operate as a national trust bank, according to a lett
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted World Liberty Trust Company “preliminary conditional approval” on 14 August 2026 to operate as a national trust bank, according to a letter posted to the OCC’s website and reported by CoinDesk. This is not a standard insured banking license: the company will not take deposits, will not carry federal deposit insurance, and has told regulators it does not intend to seek a Federal Reserve master account, per the OCC letter as cited by both CoinDesk and Decrypt.
World Liberty Trust Company is tied to World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture partly owned by President Trump and his family. According to the OCC letter quoted by CoinDesk, “the bank plans to issue USD1, a fiat currency-backed stablecoin, to institutional clients on a nationwide basis, assuming this role from BitGo Bank & Trust, National Association (BitGo), the current exclusive issuer and custodian for USD1.” Decrypt reports the proposed institution would be based in Bay Harbor Islands, Florida, and that Zachary Witkoff, a World Liberty co-founder, is listed as organizer, director and president.
The OCC letter states this is a preliminary step: full approval requires the company to first satisfy additional “preopening requirements,” per CoinDesk’s report. Decrypt reports the approval came with conditions attached: a minimum capital requirement of $20 million and an obligation to comply with the GENIUS Act, the federal stablecoin law, along with an 18-month deadline for the bank to open.
The OCC letter says World Liberty Trust Company “does not intend to become a federally insured depository institution or become a ‘bank’ as defined by the Bank Holding Company Act,” per CoinDesk. That distinction matters for how a reader should read the word “bank” in headlines about this approval. A trust charter of this kind lets a company hold custody assets and issue a stablecoin under OCC oversight; it does not create deposit insurance, does not give the company a Federal Reserve account, and does not make USD1 a government-backed instrument. Decrypt notes the OCC has issued similar national trust charters to a number of other digital-asset firms, among them Circle, Ripple, Paxos, Fidelity and BitGo.
World Liberty applied for the charter in January 2026, per CoinDesk, and the application drew objections from Democratic lawmakers over the Trump family’s ownership stake in the broader World Liberty entities. CoinDesk reports that in May 2026, Sen. Elizabeth Warren challenged Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould over the agency’s approach to crypto trust charter applicants, telling him such institutions “want to evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank.” Gould told her the agency would proceed on its normal timeline without regard to politics, according to CoinDesk.
Decrypt reports the OCC’s decision letter acknowledges receiving public comments that raised conflict-of-interest concerns tied to the president, his relatives, the Witkoff family and investors from the United Arab Emirates, along with questions raised under the Emoluments Clause. Per Decrypt, the regulator responded that such questions fell outside what its review was required to consider, pointing out that World Liberty Financial itself was not a party to the application. Decrypt also reports that passivity commitments filed with the letter were signed by Eric Trump for one investing entity. CoinDesk quotes the letter as saying “career OCC staff reviewed the application for consistency” with legal and regulatory requirements.
After the approval, CoinDesk reports that Warren and other Democrats announced plans to introduce legislation, which Warren’s office named the Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act, to bar senior government officials from owning or controlling a bank, with Sens. Angela Alsobrooks and Ruben Gallego signing on. CoinDesk notes both senators are also involved in negotiating the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, talks that CoinDesk reports are stalled partly over a Democratic demand that the president agree to divest from his crypto business ties.
This page has not reviewed the OCC’s decision letter directly. Every detail attributed to that letter here comes through CoinDesk’s and Decrypt’s quotation and paraphrase of it, not a document held independently by this desk. The Block‘s report on the same approval is held in our evidence as a headline only, so it is cited here for nothing beyond confirming the headline fact of approval.
The approval itself is preliminary and conditional. Neither outlet in our evidence can say whether or when World Liberty Trust Company will clear its remaining preopening requirements and receive final approval, or when USD1 issuance would actually transfer from BitGo. The two outlets also give slightly different accounts of timing: CoinDesk’s report, published 14 August 2026, describes the letter as dated that Friday, while Decrypt’s report, published 15 August 2026, describes the OCC action as having occurred “on Thursday.” This page cannot resolve that discrepancy from the evidence available.
Nor can this page independently assess whether the OCC’s position — that conflict-of-interest and Emoluments Clause questions fall outside its statutory review — is legally correct. That is a contested legal and political question, not a settled fact, and it is the position the agency itself is reported to have taken, not an independent finding.
Every fact above is attributed to one of these reports. Where they disagree, the article says so.
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