World Liberty’s conditional trust charter lets it take over its own stablecoin and custody business

A conditional federal trust charter landed Friday. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency handed it to World Liberty Financial. The move gives the firm’s affiliated trust company legal authority to issue its USD1 stablecoin and custody digital assets for institutional clients across the country.

World Liberty Trust Co. applied in January 2026. Now it holds preliminary conditional approval, reported by CoinDesk, to operate as a nationally chartered trust bank.

The commercial payoff breaks in two directions. USD1, a fiat-backed stablecoin, is currently issued and custodied exclusively by BitGo Bank & Trust, National Association. World Liberty Trust Co. plans to take over that role. It also plans to provide digital asset custody as a fiduciary, aimed chiefly at USD1 customers and other institutional clients.

Neither was possible under WLF’s prior structure.

Here is why that matters. A national trust charter permits a company to hold client assets in a fiduciary capacity under federal supervision. That is the legal architecture institutions demand before they park tokens with a counterparty. Bring issuance and custody under one federally chartered roof and you cut BitGo out. Revenue that sat with an outside custodian now consolidates in-house.

The charter does carry explicit limits. World Liberty Trust Co. does not intend to become a federally insured depository institution or a “bank” under the Bank Holding Company Act, and it does not intend to access a Federal Reserve master account, per the application. That keeps it out of deposit-taking and Fed payment rails. It is a trust company, not a commercial bank.

Final approval is not in hand. The OCC letter said the preliminary conditional approval was granted based on a review of the application and commitments made by the bank’s representatives, and that it remains subject to unspecified “preopening requirements” the company must meet before opening. CoinDesk did not report the specific conditions or a timeline to a full charter.

For crypto firms chasing bank status, this approval is a data point. A national trust charter has become the structuring of choice for digital asset companies that want federal supervision without the deposit-insurance and BHC requirements of a full bank. One federal license covers custody and stablecoin operations. No need to stitch together state regimes. World Liberty is now the highest-profile firm to land one. It cleared career-staff review, per the OCC letter. Competitors will read that part closely.

That review was not without friction. Sen. Elizabeth Warren challenged Comptroller Jonathan Gould in May 2026. She accused him of approving unqualified crypto banks. Gould told Warren the agency would act without considering politics. The friction did not end there. Warren and other Democrats have since introduced the “Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act” to block senior government officials from owning or controlling banks. Sens. Alsobrooks and Gallego signed on. An Abu Dhabi investment firm bought a stake in World Liberty Financial early last year. A reported $500 million interest that drew a separate House probe.

Warren said in May that such institutions “want to evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank.” The trust charter’s narrow scope is, in part, the answer to that line. WLF is not becoming a bank in the deposit-insured, Fed-connected sense. It is becoming a fiduciary custodian.

Traders, as ever, will price the rest.