Trump-linked World Liberty Financial seeks license to launch trust bank

This post was originally published on this site.

Jan 7 (Reuters) – World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture backed by the family of President Donald Trump, ​said on Wednesday that its subsidiary has filed ‌an application with U.S. banking regulators to establish a national trust bank ‌focused on stablecoin operations.

Several major cryptocurrency firms recently secured preliminary approval from federal banking authorities to establish national trust banks, marking a significant step in integrating digital assets into ⁠the regulated banking ‌system.

WLTC Holdings filed a “de novo” application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ‍for a bank charter that would issue and custody USD1, a dollar-backed stablecoin that World Liberty launched last year.

Crypto platform Anchorage Digital ​is currently the only digital asset company with a ‌national trust bank charter. The OCC supervises a total of about 60 national trust banks.

World Liberty Financial said that USD1 has reached over $3.3 billion in circulation in its first year.

The proposed trust bank would offer stablecoin issuance ⁠and redemption, and custody services for ​digital assets.

The company said it plans ​to allow conversion services between U.S. dollars and USD1 without fees at launch.

World Liberty said the ‍trust bank ⁠would be structured to comply with the recently passed GENIUS Act, which established a federal regulatory framework for ⁠stablecoins.

The OCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment ‌on the application.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in ‌Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)