Crypto Reporter
Shalini Nagarajan
Crypto Reporter
Shalini Nagarajan
Part of the Team Since
Jan 2024
About Author
Shalini is a crypto reporter who provides in-depth reports on daily developments and regulatory shifts in the cryptocurrency sector.
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World Liberty Financial has filed for a US national banking charter as stablecoins shift from a trading tool into payment infrastructure.
The group said Wednesday that World Liberty Trust submitted a de novo application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Treasury bureau that charters and supervises national banks, in a bid to bring its dollar-linked stablecoin deeper inside the regulatory perimeter.
If approved, the charter would allow the trust to issue and safeguard USD1, the dollar-backed token World Liberty launched last year.
USD1 has grown to about $3.4B in market value, and it has already shown up in headline crypto dealmaking, after a third-party investor used USD1 tokens to buy a $2B stake in Binance.
World Liberty Financial Announces that WLTC Holdings LLC has Submitted an Application for a National Trust Bank Charter to Issue and Custody USD1 Stablecoins 🦅☝️https://t.co/ulapagYLYq
— WLFI (@worldlibertyfi) January 7, 2026
Trust Charters Offer Middle Ground Between Crypto And Banking
World Liberty has leaned on established crypto plumbing so far. BitGo currently provides custody for USD1 reserves, and the arrangement has been pitched as a compliant setup that pairs stablecoin issuance with traditional reserve management and reporting.
The filing lands in a Washington mood that has turned materially friendlier to crypto under President Donald Trump, and it follows a run of charter approvals that signalled regulators are willing to bring more crypto businesses under bank-style supervision.
The OCC approved national trust bank charters in December for a slate of crypto and digital asset firms, including BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, Circle, Ripple and Paxos, widening the on ramp for tokenized finance.
Trust banks sit in a narrower lane than full-service banks, since they generally cannot take deposits or make loans. Even so, the model can still open doors for stablecoin issuers that want to custody assets and run conversion and settlement services without relying entirely on third-party providers.
Bank Charter Bid Balances Institutional Demand And Political Risk
World Liberty has pitched the trust as an institutional business, aimed at exchanges, market makers and investment firms that want custody and stablecoin conversion services with a bank level wrapper.
The company said it intends to comply with the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin law Trump signed in July 2025 that set a federal framework for payment stablecoins, and it said the trust will follow anti money laundering and sanctions screening requirements.
The move also drags politics back into the plumbing. Critics have raised conflict of interest concerns around a Trump-linked stablecoin scaling inside regulated finance, while World Liberty argues it structured the trust to reduce those risks and said the Trump family holds a non-voting interest and will not run day to day operations.
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