Overview
- The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued preliminary conditional approval for World Liberty Trust Company to organize as a national trust bank on Aug. 14, 2026, but the bank cannot open until it satisfies specific preopening conditions.
- Recent filings and reporting show StringZ, an entity backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan, controls 49% of WLTC Holdings while a Trump‑affiliated entity holds about 38%, and financial disclosures show roughly $263 million flowed to Trump family entities from the original 2025 deal.
- The OCC's approval is narrowly limited: the trust bank would issue and redeem the USD1 stablecoin and hold reserves but may not take retail deposits, make conventional loans, carry FDIC insurance, or seek a Federal Reserve master account.
- USD1 has grown to about $4 billion in circulation and is highly concentrated on Binance, and the trust bank plan would shift reserve custody from BitGo to in‑house management, raising questions about market stability and operational risk.
- Senators and ethics watchdogs have asked for a CFIUS national‑security review and congressional inquiries, and ongoing GENIUS Act rulemaking and unresolved OCC preopening conditions mean final approval remains uncertain and could materially affect markets and regulatory oversight.