OCC Advances World Liberty Financial Trust-Charter Review, Rejects Sen. Warren’s Special Probe
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) will continue procedural review of World Liberty Financial Inc.’s (WLF) application for a federal trust bank charter and denied Senator Elizabeth Warren’s request for a special conflict-of-interest review tied to the President. OCC Acting Comptroller Jonathan Gould said the application will be evaluated under standard regulatory criteria and that political or personal financial ties will not alter the process. WLF filed on Jan. 7 to expand crypto services — including issuance, custody and conversion for its USD1 stablecoin in-house rather than relying on third-party custodians. USD1, launched March 2025, is now among the largest stablecoins by market cap (~$4.2bn) and is used for cross-border payments, settlement and treasury functions. The OCC has previously given conditional approvals to other crypto firms (Circle, Ripple, Fidelity Digital Assets, BitGo, Paxos), signaling an available regulatory pathway for crypto custody and banking applicants. The agency did not disclose timing, approval likelihood or potential conditions. For traders: the decision clarifies regulatory predictability for USD1’s institutional custody and could affect liquidity and on‑chain usage depending on eventual charter outcome — maintain watch on OCC rulings and any charter conditions that could constrain USD1’s issuance or custody operations.
Neutral
This development is neutral for USD1’s price in the near term. The OCC’s decision to proceed under normal procedures clarifies regulatory process risk and reduces immediate political-uncertainty premium, which can be supportive. However, denial of a special review is not an approval — the charter application still faces standard regulatory scrutiny and potential conditions that could materially affect USD1 issuance, custody or operational scope. Short-term: traders may see modest stabilization in USD1 flows as political concern eases. Medium-to-long-term: the outcome of the charter (approval, conditional approval, or denial) will determine material impacts on USD1 liquidity and on‑chain utility. Watch for OCC timelines, any conditional requirements (capital, custody controls, reserve reporting), and market reaction to interim signals (requests for additional information, conditional approvals to other firms), which will shift the outlook toward bullish (if approval expands institutional use) or bearish (if conditions constrain operations).