The Lede
World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture associated with the family of President Donald Trump, has officially filed for a national bank charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The application, submitted by subsidiary WLTC Holdings LLC on January 7, seeks to establish the World Liberty Trust Company to directly issue and custody its dollar-backed stablecoin, USD1. Markets reacted tepidly to the regulatory play, with the governance token WLFI sliding 2% to trade around $0.17.
The Application
If approved, the charter would allow World Liberty to bring its stablecoin operations entirely in-house, reducing reliance on current custodian BitGo. The venture’s stablecoin, USD1, has swelled to a circulating supply of over $3.3 billion since its 2025 launch. Control over issuance would grant the firm direct access to Federal Reserve master accounts, a privilege historically guarded against crypto-native entities.
“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.”, Zach Witkoff, President of World Liberty Trust Company
Institutional Context
The move aligns World Liberty with a cohort of institutional players aggressively pursuing federal oversight. In December 2025 alone, BitGo, Circle, and Ripple all signaled intent or received approvals for similar charters. By seeking supervision under the OCC, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury, World Liberty is effectively betting that compliance will become the primary moat for stablecoin issuers in 2026.
Market Reaction
Despite the high-profile regulatory push, WLFI struggled to find momentum, dropping to a market cap of approximately $4.5 billion. Volume remained flat at $100 million over 24 hours. The token, which serves as the governance layer for the protocol, remains down roughly 35% from its September 2025 peak of $0.26.
