OCC Grants Trump-Backed World Liberty Trust Charter for $4B USD1 Stablecoin
OCC gave preliminary approval for World Liberty Trust Co. to take over issuance of the $4B USD1 stablecoin from BitGo, pending final requirements.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has granted preliminary conditional approval for World Liberty Trust Company to operate as a national trust bank, clearing a path for the Trump family-linked venture to directly issue its USD1 stablecoin, which carries roughly $4 billion in circulating supply. The approval, announced Friday, hands World Liberty Financial (WLFI) control over a token currently issued and custodied exclusively by BitGo Bank & Trust, National Association.
Under the OCC’s letter, World Liberty Trust Company will focus on fiduciary and trust-related activities tied to USD1. 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,” the letter states. It also plans to offer digital asset custody services as a fiduciary, primarily for USD1 customers and other institutional clients.
Conditional, not final
The charter is explicitly preliminary. The OCC said final approval won’t be issued until World Liberty Trust meets additional “preopening requirements,” a standard step for de novo national trust bank applications before they can begin full operations. “This preliminary conditional approval is granted based on a thorough evaluation of all information available to the OCC, including the representations and commitments made in the application and by the Bank’s representatives,” the regulator wrote.
World Liberty filed its charter application in January, and the review drew scrutiny almost immediately given the entity’s ownership ties to President Donald Trump, who appoints the officials overseeing the OCC. In May, Senator Elizabeth Warren pressed Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould over the application, part of a broader wave of Democratic lawmaker pushback tied to the president’s financial stake in the World Liberty ecosystem.
What moving USD1 in-house means
USD1’s roughly $4 billion market capitalization makes it one of the larger dollar-pegged stablecoins in circulation, and shifting issuance and custody away from BitGo to a bank World Liberty itself controls changes the operational and counterparty structure behind the token. For institutional holders of USD1, the transition means their exposure will eventually run through a chartered national trust bank rather than a third-party custodian — a shift that centralizes control of the stablecoin’s reserves and redemption process within the WLFI corporate umbrella once final approval clears.
World Liberty now joins a growing list of crypto-linked firms that have secured conditional OCC bank or trust charters as stablecoin issuers race to bring custody and issuance functions in-house ahead of tighter federal stablecoin rules. Whether the charter converts to a full, operating license will depend on whether World Liberty Trust satisfies the OCC’s remaining preopening conditions, which typically include capital, governance and operational readiness benchmarks.
Read more: Tether’s Reserves Top Liabilities by $6.814B in First Full KPMG Audit
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