World Liberty Gets Conditional OCC Approval to Issue USD1 Through National Trust Bank

World Liberty Gets Conditional OCC Approval to Issue USD1 Through National Trust Bank

Sat, August 15, 2026 at 12:35 AM GMT+3 2 min read

World Liberty Financial (CRYPTO: $WLFI) has moved closer to bringing its USD1 (CRYPTO: $USD1) stablecoin under a federally supervised banking structure after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditionally approved a national trust bank charter for World Liberty Trust Company.

The approval would allow the Trump family-backed crypto company to issue USD1 directly and custody the U.S. dollar assets backing the stablecoin. Those functions are currently handled through BitGo (NASDAQ: $BTGO).

Unlike a traditional commercial bank charter, the national trust structure generally does not permit deposit-taking or lending. It would instead give World Liberty a single federal framework for custody, asset servicing and settlement, areas the company has said are central to its plans for institutional clients such as exchanges and investment firms.

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The OCC approval is still preliminary and comes with several conditions before the trust company can begin operating. World Liberty Trust must maintain at least $20 million in capital, appoint a qualified internal audit manager and notify the regulator of major changes to its business plan.

World Liberty spokesperson David Wachsman previously said the structure would bring "robust OCC oversight, including regular examinations," placing the stablecoin business directly inside the federal banking supervisory system.

USD1 has grown quickly since launching in 2025. Reuters said the dollar-backed token now carries a market capitalization of roughly $4 billion, making it the fourth-largest stablecoin.

The application has also drawn political scrutiny because of World Liberty's ties to President Donald Trump and his family. Democratic lawmakers questioned whether a Trump-appointed regulator could review the application without a conflict of interest. The OCC said career staff handled the review and that Comptroller Jonathan Gould and agency employees acted consistently with their statutory and ethical obligations.

For World Liberty, conditional approval opens a path to bring stablecoin issuance, reserves and custody closer under one federally regulated structure.

World Liberty Financial (CRYPTO: WLFI) is currently trading at $0.056 U.S. per digital token.