Trump Family Crypto Firm Nears Federal Bank Charter From A Regulator The President Appoints, Resolving Long-Standing Concern That The Treasury Was Not Yet Chartering The President's Own Currency

WASHINGTON. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a bureau of the Treasury Department whose leader is appointed by the President of the United States, is expected to grant a national trust bank charter to World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency company co-founded by President Trump and his three sons, resolving a long-standing concern that the federal government was supervising the President's personal currency rather than the other way around.

The company applied for the charter on January 5 and has awaited a decision since. A national trust bank charter would let World Liberty Financial operate with federal banking privileges, including the authority to custody assets and hold the reserves backing its USD1 stablecoin, lending the President's personal financial product the kind of federal legitimacy that ordinary crypto issuers spend years trying and failing to obtain.

The charter would be issued by the OCC, an executive-branch regulator whose Comptroller, Jonathan Gould, serves under the administration. Two former officials of the bureau, speaking on the condition that they not be named, told reporters that approval was all but certain, with one describing a denial of the President's firm as inconceivable. Administration officials characterized the application as a routine matter being handled on its merits, a routine matter the President happens to co-own and the regulator happens to report to.

Financial disclosures show that roughly 75 percent of the proceeds from sales of World Liberty's token flow to a Trump-controlled entity, DT Marks DEFI LLC, and that the President's family has collected an estimated half a billion dollars from the venture over the past year, a period during which many retail buyers of the token lost money. The firm has also drawn substantial foreign money, including a large stake purchased by a fund linked to Abu Dhabi's deputy ruler and a multibillion-dollar investment settled through the company's own stablecoin.

Democratic lawmakers have asked how a sitting president can hold a financial interest in a company seeking a charter from his own administration, and have raised concerns about national security and conflicts of interest. The administration has noted that the President's holdings sit inside a revocable trust managed by his son, an arrangement under which the President cannot touch the money until he wants to.

At press time, the Comptroller of the Currency had reportedly cleared his calendar to personally hand-deliver the charter, the reserves, and a complimentary toaster.