Trump-Backed World Liberty Financial Secures Conditional OCC Approval for US Trust Bank
World Liberty Financial, a venture backed by the Trump family, has received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank in the United States, joining other cryptocurrency projects pursuing similar charters.
The development initially spurred a price surge for the project’s underlying token, which saw a 5.5% increase and became one of the top-performing larger-cap altcoins. However, the gains were short-lived as the token was quickly pushed back from a key resistance level.
According to reports from several major media outlets, the OCC granted preliminary conditional approval to World Liberty Trust Company, the entity that applied for the national trust bank charter earlier this year. This decision is poised to alter the operational framework for the project’s rapidly expanding USD1 stablecoin.
Currently, the issuance and custody of the USD1 stablecoin are managed with the assistance of BitGo. Upon the operationalization of the new trust bank, World Liberty will be empowered to issue the stablecoin directly, maintain custody of the assets that back it, and offer custodial services under federal oversight.
It is important to note that this charter does not transform World Liberty into a traditional commercial bank. The trust charter specifically prohibits the institution from accepting conventional deposits or issuing loans.
Several prerequisites must be met before the bank can officially open. The approval remains conditional, not final. World Liberty must satisfy a series of OCC requirements, including maintaining a minimum capital of $20 million, implementing robust compliance and internal audit systems, and successfully passing pre-opening examinations.
Despite these hurdles, the conditional approval represents a significant milestone, particularly given the rapid expansion of USD1 since its debut in March 2025. This development places World Liberty alongside other prominent industry players. Last year, the OCC granted similar conditional approvals to Ripple National Trust Bank and Circle’s First National Digital Currency Bank, both newly formed national trust banks.
The news of the OCC’s approval initially provided a notable boost to World Liberty’s native token. The token traded at $0.055 before climbing to a local peak of $0.06. However, this upward momentum proved unsustainable, with the token experiencing a sharp decline and returning to $0.056, reflecting a more modest increase of approximately 2.5%.
WLFI currently holds a market capitalization of $1.8 billion, positioning it as the 42nd-largest cryptocurrency by this metric.
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