type: timeline_event
World Liberty Financial, the Trump family-linked cryptocurrency company, announced that its subsidiary WLTC Holdings LLC filed a de novo application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish World Liberty Trust Company, National Association—a proposed national trust bank purpose-built for stablecoin operations. The trust firm, if approved, would directly issue the USD1 stablecoin, which has reached over $3.3 billion in circulation, and offer custody and conversion services for digital assets.
The application represents a landmark conflict of interest: by applying for its own bank charter, World Liberty removed the last intermediary separating its regulatory goals from the Trump administration's oversight. World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff told the Wall Street Journal that the company had structured the new trust entity "intentionally" to avoid conflicts of interest, claiming President Trump and his family members would not serve as executives or exercise day-to-day control. However, Trump family members remain major stakeholders in the venture.
The federal banking regulator was hesitant to approve banks offering crypto-related services under the Biden administration, but has turned around on the digital assets sector since Trump took office. OCC head Jonathan Gould, a Trump appointee, took over the agency in summer 2025. The OCC's decision timeline for trust charters typically spans 12 to 18 months. National trust bank charters are rare for crypto-native firms, with Anchorage Digital currently the only digital asset company to have secured one.