World Liberty Financial, the firm co-funded by Donald Trump, has applied for a US bank charter for one of its entities, allowing it to expand its USD1 stablecoin operations.
The company filed a de novo application with the OCC to establish the proposed national trust bank World Liberty Trust, created for stablecoin services. World Liberty is one of the latest crypto firms to apply for a bank charter, causing a commotion for traditional lenders who see this as an attempt to gain federal legitimacy without assuming the full regulatory responsibility of national banks.
Crypto firms looking to acquire bank charters
In 2025, Coinbase applied for a bank charter, with the OCC announcing that its conditional approval of charter applications from firms like Ripple, Paxos and BitGo. By seeking narrowly scoped trust charters, digital-asset firms are testing the limits of financial supervision.
World Liberty raised money through the sale of its WLFI token, which was initially supposed to be a non-transferable governance token, but later became tradeable. According to tracker CoinGecko, its USD1 stablecoin, used by a fund to invest in crypto exchange Binance, has a market capitalisation of USD 3.4 billion.
The charter, if granted, would allow the company to offer solutions to institutional customers like crypto exchanges, delivering digital asset custody and stablecoin conversion services, enabling holders of multiple stablecoins to move into USD1. The crypto firm believes that a national trust charter offers a clear federal framework for custody, reserve management, and fiduciary oversight.
In the future, this can allow for direct institutional participation, improved customer protection, and wider use in regulated payment and settlement processes, subject to supervisory approval.
The move happens as President Donald Trump is slowly pushing a crypto-friendly strategy. He recently signed a bill into law that regulated USD-backed stablecoins. Additionally, OCC confirmed that banks can act as intermediaries on crypto transactions, connecting TradFi with DeFi.
