World Liberty Financial will continue to undergo review for its national trust bank license application. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency refused to pause the process, despite Senator Elizabeth Warren‘s demand to halt it until Donald Trump sells his stake in the crypto platform.
The application is intended to allow the company to expand its crypto business and work with digital assets and a stablecoin within its own structure. The OCC made it clear that the review will follow standard procedures and will not take the political context into account.
The World Liberty Financial application will be reviewed under the same conditions as other requests submitted to the regulator.
Warren’s criticism was related to the fact that the U.S. president and his sons Eric, Donald Trump Jr., and Barron are listed among the founders of World Liberty Financial. According to her, the platform has brought the family billions of dollars in estimated share value.
World Liberty Financial submitted its banking license application on January 7. If approved, the company will be able to issue, store, and convert the USD1 stablecoin itself, without relying on external services like BitGo.
USD1 has been used since its launch not only as a settlement stablecoin, but also in cross-border transfers and treasury operations. Within a few months of entering the market, its capitalization grew to $4.2 billion. By this measure, USD1 is now among the top six largest stablecoins.
The Crypto Industry Struggled for Years to Obtain Bank Licenses
In the past, it was extremely difficult for crypto companies to get approval for national trust bank licenses. Regulators treated such applications with caution for years and most often rejected them.
The situation began to change in December, when the OCC issued five conditional approvals at once. These went to Circle, Ripple, Fidelity Digital Assets, BitGo, and Paxos. This move signaled that the currency regulator is ready to allow crypto companies to work more closely with the traditional financial system.
