World Liberty Financial Files for OCC Banking Charter; USD1 Tops $3.3B

World Liberty Financial (WLF), the decentralized finance protocol backed by the Trump family, filed a de novo application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Wednesday to establish a national trust bank. The proposed entity, World Liberty Trust Company, National Association (WLTC), seeks to consolidate the issuance, custody, and conversion of its USD1 stablecoin under direct federal oversight.

This move signals an aggressive pivot from DeFi protocol to federally regulated financial institution. If approved, WLTC would join Anchorage Digital as one of the few crypto-native firms to secure a national trust charter. Following the announcement, the protocol’s governance token, WLFI, held steady at $0.17 (+1.9%), while USD1 circulation was confirmed to have exceeded $3.3 billion.

The Federal Play

The application outlines a “full-stack” operational model where WLTC would handle the minting and redemption of USD1 directly, bypassing third-party custodians. According to the filing, the bank is designed to comply with the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin framework signed into law in July 2025.

Zach Witkoff, WLF co-founder and the proposed President of WLTC, positioned the charter as a necessity for institutional scale:

“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.”

Market & Political Friction

The filing arrives as USD1 rapidly gains market share, now ranking as the sixth-largest stablecoin. However, the application creates a unique regulatory paradox: the OCC, the regulator tasked with approving or denying the charter, operates under an administration led by the project’s own founders.

Traditional banking groups have already voiced opposition, warning that granting charters to crypto-native trusts could calcify a “two-tier” banking system that bypasses stricter capital requirements faced by incumbent banks. Despite the friction, WLF stated that WLTC would launch with fee-free minting and redemption services, leveraging the charter to aggressively undercut competitor pricing.