Trust Me Bro: Trump Family's Crypto Bank Gets OCC Green Light to Custody Its Own Stablecoin 🏦

A federal regulator appointed by President Donald Trump has conditionally approved a national trust charter for World Liberty Trust Company, the issuer of the $4 billion USD1 stablecoin, in a decision that hands the Trump family a federally chartered financial institution. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency published the charter approval on Friday, according to reporting from CoinDesk. Final approval would allow World Liberty Trust to issue USD1 directly and hold the dollar assets backing the token, bringing both functions in-house from partner BitGo, which currently mints the token and safeguards its reserves.

The decision drew immediate scrutiny because of who sits atop the OCC. Trump appointed Comptroller Jonathan Gould to lead the agency last year, and congressional Democrats spent the months since World Liberty Trust filed its application in early January warning that approval would create a conflict of interest. In its approval letter, the OCC said career staff handled the review and that Gould met his statutory duties and ethical obligations, with nonpolitical examiners set to supervise the bank once it opens. The agency operates without a bipartisan board to check a single appointee, which Democrats flagged at a February hearing where they pressed Gould to release the unredacted filing; the public version left out capital structure and business plan specifics.

The financial stakes for the Trump family are significant. Reuters estimated Trump family earnings from USD1 at roughly $50 million through June 2026, and World Liberty Financial had routed more than $1.6 billion to the president and his sons as of April, a figure consistent with his 2025 crypto earnings disclosure. Leadership of the proposed bank remains inside Trump's circle, with Zach Witkoff, chief executive of World Liberty Financial and son of special envoy Steve Witkoff, set to chair the institution, and Robert Witkoff and Scott Alper, who runs the Witkoff family real estate business, proposed as directors.

USD1 trades near $1 with a market capitalization of about $4.02 billion, ranking 23rd across all crypto assets. The charter would allow World Liberty to issue and redeem USD1, custody the dollars and Treasury money market funds behind it, and settle payments for institutional clients under one federal license, though trust charters stop short of full banking, with no retail deposits or lending. The OCC imposed conditions including a $20 million capital floor, advance notice of major business plan changes, and a qualified internal audit manager.

Rivals reached this stage earlier, with Circle winning final OCC bank approval in July, while Ripple and Crypto.com hold conditional trust charter approvals, and major lenders have weighed legal action over charters that grant crypto firms federal standing without full bank supervision. Nothing changes for USD1 holders until the conditions are satisfied and final approval lands, while Congress has yet to receive the unredacted portions of the application left out of the public version.