The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Thursday granted preliminary conditional approval for a national trust bank tied to World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture backed by President Donald Trump and his family, clearing a major hurdle for the firm's dollar-pegged stablecoin.

The proposed institution, World Liberty Trust Company, National Association, would be based in Bay Harbor Islands, Florida. According to the OCC's decision letter, it plans to issue and redeem USD1, World Liberty's stablecoin, taking over that role from BitGo, the current exclusive issuer and custodian. USD1 launched in early 2025 and gained wider attention when Abu Dhabi-backed investment firm MGX was reported to be using it for a $2 billion investment in Binance.

The bank would also provide digital-asset custody as a fiduciary and allow custody clients to convert approved stablecoins into USD1. As a trust bank, it will not take deposits, carry FDIC insurance or, for now, seek a Federal Reserve master account, the direct payment-system access the Fed has denied to some crypto-focused applicants such as Wyoming's Custodia Bank, and it committed to remaining outside the definition of a "bank" under the Bank Holding Company Act.

Zachary Witkoff, a World Liberty co-founder and son of Trump administration Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, is listed as organizer, director and president. The approval includes conditions such as a $20 million minimum capital requirement and a mandate to comply with the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin law enacted last year that requires payment stablecoins to be backed one-for-one by high-quality liquid assets and to be issued only by regulated entities — a framework that has encouraged a wave of crypto firms to pursue similar charters.

As Decrypt has reported, the OCC has already granted national trust charters to a range of digital-asset companies, including Circle, Ripple, Paxos, Fidelity and BitGo. That charter type covers fiduciary and custody activities rather than deposit-taking and lending, offering federal supervision without full bank regulation. World Liberty applied for its charter earlier this year.

The Trump connection prompted objections during the review. The OCC said it received comments raising potential conflicts of interest involving the president, his family, the Witkoffs and Emirati investors in World Liberty, as well as questions about the Emoluments Clause.

The regulator largely dismissed those concerns as outside the scope of its review, noting that World Liberty Financial itself is not a party to the application. Passivity commitments filed with the letter were signed by Eric Trump for one investing entity.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, has separately said the OCC's crypto charter approvals are illegal, arguing that the firms operate like banks while avoiding the safeguards required of that status.

The bank has 18 months to open, a window in which its organizers must satisfy the OCC's conditions — from the $20 million capital floor to GENIUS Act compliance — before issuance of USD1 can shift in-house from BitGo.