The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has given preliminary conditional approval for a new national trust bank tied to the USD1 stablecoin, in a decision that stops well short of a final charter to open for business.
In its Corporate Decision #1385, dated 14 August 2026, the OCC approved an application by World Liberty Trust Company, National Association, to organise as an uninsured national trust bank. The regulator was explicit that the approval is only a first step: “Final approval… will not be granted until all preopening requirements are met.”
What the OCC actually approved
The entity, based in Bay Harbour Islands, Florida, would be a national trust bank rather than a full service bank. It would not take insured deposits or make loans. Instead, it is intended to issue and redeem the USD1 stablecoin, manage the reserve assets that back it, and provide digital asset custody for institutional clients, taking over the issuer and custodian role currently held by BitGo Bank and Trust. Because it would not hold insured deposits, federal deposit insurance would not cover it.
Senior Deputy Comptroller Stephen Lybarger, a career agency official, signed the approval, and the decision states that career staff reviewed the application and decided it met the OCC’s standard legal and financial criteria. It is a preliminary conditional approval to organise, not authority to begin operating; the company must still complete preopening requirements before the OCC will grant final approval.
The seven conditions
The OCC attached seven conditions to the approval, enforceable under federal banking law. Together they require the company to:
- limit itself to fiduciary and trust company activities, and not operate as a full commercial bank;
- bring its stablecoin activities into compliance with the GENIUS Act, or cease or divest them if it cannot;
- give the OCC 60 days’ notice and obtain a non objection before any significant deviation from its business plan during its first three years;
- maintain at least $20 million in tier one capital, and hold eligible liquid assets equal to the greater of 50 percent of that capital or $10 million;
- hold enough liquid assets to cover 180 days of operating expenses;
- obtain the OCC’s non objection before appointing senior officers or directors; and
- appoint an independent internal audit manager.
What World Liberty says
In its own announcement, World Liberty Financial framed the decision as approval to establish a national trust bank for USD1 operations. The company says USD1 has more than $4 billion in circulation and that its reserve is backed by US dollars on deposit, US government money market funds and cash equivalents. It lists distribution across major exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, OKX and others, as well as decentralised venues.
Zach Witkoff, president and chairman of World Liberty Trust Company, said in the release: “USD1 grew because institutions trust how it operates, and confidence at enterprise scale deserves the backing of federal supervision. What makes a stablecoin trustworthy is the strength of the reserve behind it, and who stands accountable for it. A national trust bank brings USD1 issuance, custody, and reserve management together under OCC supervision, examined on the same standards that have governed banks for generations.”
The ownership questions
World Liberty Trust Company shares indirect common ownership with World Liberty Financial, the digital asset venture publicly associated with President Donald Trump and his family. In its decision, the OCC noted that several commenters raised conflict of interest concerns tied to that association and to other investors. The OCC said career staff evaluated the application on its legal and financial merits, and those concerns did not change the criteria it applied.
According to the company’s own disclosures and public reporting, entities affiliated with the Trump family hold a substantial stake in the wider World Liberty Financial venture. The OCC’s letter records that Eric Trump signed a passivity commitment through an affiliated entity, an undertaking not to exercise controlling influence over the bank. That stake is drawn from public reporting and company disclosures, not from the OCC decision, which does not state an ownership figure.
Why it matters
The decision is one of the clearest tests yet of how the United States will supervise stablecoins under the GENIUS Act, which sets a federal framework for payment stablecoins. Bringing USD1 issuance, redemption and custody inside a federally supervised trust bank would place a large stablecoin under direct OCC examination for the first time. Whether that happens still depends on the company meeting the preopening conditions; until it does, the approval remains preliminary, and the bank is not yet authorised to operate.
