The OCC has granted conditional approval for World Liberty Financial to establish a national trust bank, allowing it to directly issue and custody its USD1 stablecoin under federal supervision. The approval, which requires meeting capital and compliance requirements, marks a significant milestone for the Trump-family-backed project. The news triggered a 5.5% surge in the project’s native token WLFI, pushing it to $0.06 before a sharp rejection. The token now trades at $0.056, with a market cap of $1.8 billion, making it the 42nd-largest cryptocurrency. The move follows similar OCC approvals for Ripple and Circle.
The Trump-family-backed World Liberty Financial has received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank in the US. The OCC granted preliminary conditional approval to World Liberty Trust Company, the entity that applied for the charter earlier this year.
The approval changes how the project operates its rapidly growing USD1 stablecoin. Issuance and custody have been handled with the help of BitGo, but the new bank will allow World Liberty to issue the stablecoin directly, custody the backing assets, and provide custodial services under federal supervision.
The trust charter does not turn World Liberty into a traditional commercial bank, as it cannot take conventional deposits or make loans. The approval is conditional, requiring the project to satisfy OCC requirements including maintaining at least $20 million in capital, establishing compliance and internal audit systems, and passing pre-opening examinations.
Despite the hurdles, the conditional approval is a major milestone given how quickly USD1 expanded since its debut in March 2025. World Liberty joins other industry giants: the OCC previously conditionally approved Ripple National Trust Bank and Circle’s First National Digital Currency Bank as newly created national trust banks.
The news resulted in an immediate boost for World Liberty’s native token WLFI. It traded at $0.055 yesterday before shooting up to a local peak of $0.06, but was rejected violently and now trades at $0.056, a modest increase of 2.5%. WLFI’s market cap stands at $1.8 billion, making it the 42nd-largest cryptocurrency.
