The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in the US has issued conditional approval for the bank charter application of World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture tied to President Donald Trump’s family.
The move provisionally paves way for World Liberty Trust Company, National Association (WLTC), a new national trust bank intended for stablecoin-related activity.
The proposed entity, WLTC, is being set up by WLTC Holdings.
If it opens, WLTC will function as a federally supervised national trust bank.
Its planned role includes issuing and redeeming USD1, administering the assets that support the token, and providing digital asset custody for institutional clients.
The dollar-linked stablecoin has surpassed $4bn in circulation.
WLTC cannot begin business until it meets the conditions laid out in the OCC approval letter and completes the remaining steps needed to open.
The bank is set to have a five-person board made up of World Liberty Financial founders and independent members with backgrounds in accountancy, regulation and financial services.
Zach Witkoff, co-founder and chief executive of World Liberty Financial, is to serve as chair.
The other board members are Scott Alper, president and chief investment officer of Witkoff Group; Robert Witkoff, former co-chief investment officer of The Chubb Corporation; Jeffrey Weiner, an independent director and former chairman and chief executive of Marcum.
Erin Baskett, an independent director, member of the FINRA Board of Governors and founder of brokerage firm Sine Qua Non Capital is also one of the members.
According to the filing details, WLTC is being structured to operate under federal oversight, with customer assets held separately, reserve management handled independently, anti-money laundering and sanctions screening in place, and routine OCC review.
Mack McCain is due to become chief trust officer, with responsibility for fiduciary operations once the bank opens.
Daniel Dietzel, previously chief financial officer at institutional prime broker Hidden Road, is to take the same role at WLTC.
USD1 is supported by US dollars held at financial institutions, US government money market funds and cash equivalents.
The token is available on exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, OKX, Bitget, Gate, KuCoin, Crypto.com and MEXC, as well as on decentralised trading venues such as Uniswap and PancakeSwap.
World Liberty Trust Company president and chairman Zach Witkoff said: “USD1 grew because institutions trust how it operates, and confidence at enterprise scale deserves the backing of federal supervision.
