Trump Family's World Liberty Financial Gets Preliminary Approval to Launch a Bank — WSJ

By Vicky Ge HuangWorld Liberty Financial, the Trump family's flagship crypto venture, said on Friday that its trust company has received preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to become a bank.Upon final approval, World Liberty Trust will operate as a federally chartered national trust bank. The charter will allow World Liberty to issue, redeem and safeguard USD1, the dollar-backed stablecoin that World Liberty launched last year. The stablecoin, whose reserves are currently custodied with BitGo, has a market value of about $4 billion.The firm said it would have to satisfy a list of conditions and receive a final examination from the OCC before it can become operational.The OCC, led by Jonathan Gould, has approved the launch of several crypto-focused trust banks, granting them broader access to the traditional financial system. Trust banks differ from full banks in that they generally can't take deposits or make loans.The approval comes as President Trump's $1.4 billion earnings from his memecoin and crypto ventures have become the biggest roadblock for passing a landmark bill that would create a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets. The Clarity Act has stalled, driven in part by disagreements over ethics language that would prohibit government officials from profiting off digital assets. The bill is scheduled for a procedural vote on Sept. 15.President Trump and his two sons helped launch World Liberty in late 2024 as a decentralized finance, or DeFi, project that would offer borrowing, lending and trading services. Those features still haven't become available, , but World Liberty now offers borrowing and lending through a partnership with Dolomite.The crypto empire has created a huge chunk of his family's recent windfalls. In 2025, he earned more than $500 million in proceeds from selling World Liberty's token, WLFI, and an additional $263 million connected to the sale of equity in World Liberty to a group of investors led by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan, a United Arab Emirates royal.World Liberty applied to create a trust company in January, with plans to offer crypto custody and stablecoin conversion services, while serving institutional customers, including crypto exchanges, market makers, and investment firms.The plan has drawn backlash from critics, who raised concerns about conflicts of interest. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) said in a statement that "we have never seen financial conflicts or corruption of this magnitude."The White House has said previously that "neither the President nor his family has ever engaged — or will ever engage — in conflicts of interest."Zach Witkoff, chief executive of World Liberty Financial and chairman of World Liberty Trust Company, said the firm submitted "probably one of the most thoroughly reviewed applications in the history of the OCC.""We answered all of the regulator's questions, and we accepted the significant obligations and ongoing scrutiny that come with the national charter," Witkoff said in an interview. "If we were looking for less oversight, we would not have chosen federal supervision."Zach Witkoff is the son of Steve Witkoff, the president's friend and Middle East envoy.World Liberty Trust said it would be governed by a five-member board that includes Zach Witkoff, his father's brother Robert Witkoff, who is a former co-chief investment officer of The Chubb Corp., and Scott Alper, who is president and chief investment officer of his father's real-estate firm, Witkoff Group.The other two members are Jeffrey Weiner, former chairman and chief executive of accounting and advisory firm Marcum LLP, and Erin Baskett, member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority board of governors and founder of brokerage firm Sine Qua Non Capital.Write to Vicky Ge Huang at [email protected]