Trump crypto bank approval sparks Warren’s ‘self-dealing’ warning
The Trump administration has handed a major regulatory win to a cryptocurrency company tied to the president’s own family, and the timing alone is enough to raise eyebrows in Washington. On Friday, federal banking regulators granted conditional approval for World Liberty Trust Co. to operate as a chartered trust bank, a decision that hands new federal credibility to a venture in which President Donald Trump and his relatives hold a direct financial stake. The Trump crypto bank approval immediately drew fire from Democrats and watchdog groups who say it embodies exactly the kind of conflict of interest they’ve warned about since Trump returned to office.
Key takeaways
- The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditionally approved World Liberty Trust Co.’s application for a national trust bank charter, with additional requirements still needed before final approval.
- World Liberty Financial says it is 38 percent owned by an entity affiliated with Donald Trump and his family, who also hold 22.5 billion of the company’s governance tokens.
- The charter lets World Liberty manage its USD1 stablecoin directly under federal oversight instead of relying on third-party partner BitGo.
- Trump disclosed nearly $600 million in income from World Liberty token and equity sales in 2025, part of $1.4 billion in total crypto-related earnings.
- Senator Elizabeth Warren called the approval “the most brazen act of self-dealing our financial system has ever seen” and is pushing legislation to block similar deals.
OCC Grants Conditional Trust Bank Charter to World Liberty
The core of this story is straightforward: a federal regulator has cleared the path for a company backed by the sitting president’s family to run a bank-like institution supervised by that same administration. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Treasury Department’s bank regulatory arm, said in a letter posted Friday that it was conditionally approving World Liberty Trust Co.’s application for a national trust bank charter. The company still has to clear additional steps, including raising capital, before the OCC signs off for good.
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