World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s cryptocurrency firm, has applied for a federal bank charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, it announced in a press release Wednesday.
A national trust bank charter – the same license five crypto firms were conditionally approved for last month – would allow World Liberty to offer digital asset custody and stablecoin conversion services, which it plans to offer to enable holders of other stablecoins to convert them to USD1.
USD1’s circulation has reached $3.3 billion since launching in March 2025.
“This application marks a further evolution of the World Liberty Financial ecosystem. USD1 grew faster in its first year than any other stablecoin in history,” Zach Witkoff, the proposed president and chairman of World Liberty Trust Company, said in a prepared statement.
“Institutions are already using USD1 for cross-border payments, settlement, and treasury operations. A national trust charter will allow us to bring issuance, custody, and conversion together as a full-stack offering under one highly regulated entity,” Witkoff said.
Witkoff is the son of President Donald Trump’s longtime friend Steve Witkoff, who serves as U.S. special envoy to the Middle East. Trump’s three sons, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump, co-founded World Liberty, and the president is listed as co-founder emeritus.
Mack McCain, World Liberty’s general counsel and a former Robinhood chief of staff and associate general counsel, will oversee fiduciary duties at WLTC.
“The OCC has supervised trust activities for over a century,” said McCain, the proposed trust officer of World Liberty Trust Company. “WLTC will operate under that same framework, with segregated customer assets, independent reserve management, and regular examination. That gives banks, asset managers, and corporations the regulatory clarity they need to further expand their use of USD1.”
The OCC did not respond to a request for comment on World Liberty’s charter application.
Numerous crypto companies and fintechs have applied for bank charters – specifically national trust bank charters – since Trump took office last January. Such companies are encouraged by federal financial regulators like the OCC issuing pro-crypto guidance and the passage of the Genius Act, which created the first-ever federal framework for crypto – specifically stablecoins.
Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said in October that he wants to avoid taking “an ostrich approach” to regulating novel financial products such as digital currencies.
“My view is that it’s better for it to be done within the banking system, if it’s legally permissible and can be done in a safe and sound manner, so that we can see it and monitor it, versus an ostrich approach, where we put our head in the sand and we’re not really observing what’s going on out there,” he told Banking Dive.
“If it’s done in a regulated system like the banking system, we can take advantage of the upside and mitigate the downside,” he said. “That’s what the banking system is designed to do.”
The Trump family is involved in multiple crypto-related ventures. In addition to World Liberty, the president and first lady Melania Trump launched the meme coins $TRUMP and $MELANIA. Trump’s meme coin reached $14.5 billion in market value before crashing, according to Reuters, which reported in December that his media company, Trump Media and Technology Group, planned to distribute a digital token to its shareholders.
The Trump family has netted billions of dollars from its crypto ventures, according to the Wall Street Journal.
