The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave World Liberty Trust Co. conditional approval on Friday to establish a bank charter, clearing a path for the Trump-linked crypto venture to issue a stablecoin tied to the U.S. dollar. The move is the first time a company owned by the sitting president’s family has been granted bank status, and it puts a regulatory stamp on a business that has already drawn sharp political attention.
The approval matters because it would let World Liberty Financial cut out the middleman. Instead of relying on BitGo to provide a stable digital currency, the Trump family's business could issue the coin directly, with clients exchanging dollars for the stablecoin and profits flowing back into the crypto venture. World Liberty Trust Co. is 38% owned by an entity affiliated with Donald J. Trump and certain family members, making the decision a fresh test of how Washington handles a business tied so closely to the president’s household.
The timing is why the search term is lighting up now. On Friday, the regulator appointed under Trump gave the company a conditional green light while Democratic lawmakers were already warning about potential conflicts of interest. The president’s family has seen extensive profit from World Liberty Financial, and Trump himself has made more than $1.4 billion in business revenue from his family’s crypto ventures, according to his released financial disclosures. That backdrop makes the approval less like a routine charter action and more like a decision that touches money, politics and the use of presidential power at the same time.
Anna Kelly, the White House spokeswoman, said the president’s assets are in a trust managed by his children and that there are no conflicts of interest. She also said Trump acts only in the best interests of the American public. Democratic lawmakers are not persuaded. Their concern is straightforward: a company tied to the president’s family is now closer to becoming a bank, and the same structure that may open the door to larger clients could also widen the flow of profits to the family business.
The company’s recent history only sharpens that unease. In May 2025, state-backed Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX invested another $2 billion in the company and promised to use the family’s USD1 stablecoin in large transactions with Binance. That deal later came under scrutiny when the Trump administration agreed to supply the UAE with American-made AI chips. World Liberty Financial co-founder Zach Witkoff announced the deal in Dubai alongside Eric Trump and thanked MGX and Binance for their trust, saying it was only the beginning. Witkoff is the son of the president’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
What happens next is the missing piece. The approval is conditional, but the specific conditions were not disclosed in the material provided, which means World Liberty Trust Co. still has more ground to cover before the charter is fully effective. For now, the key fact is that a Trump-appointed regulator has given the family’s crypto venture a formal route into banking, and the fight over whether that is ordinary supervision or an obvious conflict has only just begun.
