Donald Trump’s crypto company just received a major green light from the federal government — allowing it to move closer to operating as a national trust bank.
World Liberty Financial, the crypto firm launched by Trump and his sons Don Jr. and Eric in 2024, announced that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had given preliminary approval for its subsidiary, World Liberty Financial Trust, to operate as a national trust bank, according to the Huffington Post.
That is a remarkable development on its own.
But the bigger story is who owns the company, and who controls the government agency now responsible for overseeing it.
Trump, who holds the title of “Co-Founder Emeritus,” and his sons reportedly own a 38% stake in World Liberty Financial. That stake has helped add more than $2 billion to Trump’s net worth since he returned to the White House.
And now, a federal financial regulator appointed by Trump and serving under his administration is preparing to oversee his own family’s bank.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren didn’t mince words.
“This is the most brazen act of self-dealing our financial system has ever seen,” Warren said following the charter announcement.
The OCC, meanwhile, says its chartering process is “transparent, apolitical and nonpartisan” and overseen by career civil servants.
But critics say the problem isn’t simply whether World Liberty Financial receives special treatment today.
It’s that Trump now has a private financial operation sitting directly inside the system his administration regulates.
Trump’s own bank
If World Liberty Financial receives final approval, the company will have significant regulatory authority to issue and hold its own stablecoin, USD1 — a cryptocurrency designed to maintain a value pegged to the U.S. dollar.
The business can earn money through interest generated on deposits tied to USD1. The stablecoin currently has about $4 billion in capitalization.
That creates a potentially enormous financial incentive.
Someone who wants access to Trump, whether an investor, company, foreign government or someone seeking help from the federal government, could have another reason to put money into a company owned in part by the president and his family.
Warren described that concern bluntly, arguing that the stablecoin creates another avenue for people seeking government favors to conduct profitable transactions with the president’s business interests.
And the concerns don’t stop with conflicts of interest.
Experts warn that a presidentially connected financial company could distort competition throughout the market.
What happens when the president’s company has a regulator?
The biggest issue may be what happens when World Liberty Financial gets into trouble.
Financial regulators are supposed to operate independently, applying the same rules to everyone.
But Trump has asserted broad authority over federal agencies, including the ability to direct and remove officials. That creates a situation where the regulator overseeing Trump’s company ultimately answers to the president who owns part of it.
Todd Phillips, a professor of law and business at Georgia State University, warned that Trump could pressure the Comptroller of the Currency to benefit World Liberty Financial.
That pressure could take many forms. Regulators could take a lighter approach toward World Liberty Financial while taking a harder approach toward competitors.
The result, critics say, could be a state-favored private company with an enormous built-in advantage.
“If a stablecoin issuer appears state favored you’ll see cheaper funding for that company,” cryptocurrency expert Chastity Murphy said. The market could begin steering money toward World Liberty Financial “not because it’s better, but because it’s politically advantaged.”
The OCC insists career employees remain responsible for supervising regulated institutions and have procedures for raising ethics concerns.
But financial experts say the larger problem is the precedent.
World Liberty Financial’s political connections aren’t hypothetical.
The company has already been linked to investors and partners who have received access, legal relief or policy benefits from the Trump administration.
One example involves the United Arab Emirates.
According to the source material, a UAE sovereign wealth fund secretly invested $500 million in World Liberty Financial shortly before Trump took office, receiving a 49% stake in the company.
Then, in May 2025, MGX — a company run by the same UAE official — announced a $2 billion investment in World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin.
Just two weeks later, the Trump administration approved a multibillion-dollar sale of advanced computer chips to the UAE. The deal was negotiated by Steve Witkoff, who was a part owner of World Liberty Financial at the time, while his son helps run the company.
Then came Binance.
The UAE used the $2 billion USD1 deposit to invest in Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange that had previously pleaded guilty to money laundering, sanctions evasion and other illicit activity.
In October 2025, Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao after a lobbying campaign connected to his son Don Jr., according to the source material. Binance subsequently became the primary holder of World Liberty Financial’s USD1, holding 87% of the stablecoin in its wallets as of February 2026.
The parties involved deny that these relationships amount to a quid pro quo.
But the connections are difficult to ignore.
And they illustrate why observers are worried about what happens when a president’s private financial interests become intertwined with the machinery of government.
This could be much bigger than Trump’s bank account
The concern isn’t simply that Trump could make more money.
It’s that World Liberty Financial could become part of the financial infrastructure through which money moves, giving a presidentially connected company the ability to issue its own digital currency and potentially attract enormous amounts of capital.
That could create what one expert called a feedback loop: people who want access or favors from the administration could have an incentive to do business through Trump’s financial network.
There’s also the possibility of a government backstop.
If USD1 becomes large enough, regulators could face enormous pressure to protect the company and its customers if something goes wrong.
One cryptocurrency expert described the company as potentially “too-big-to-fail on conception.”
That could encourage risk-taking and create problems far beyond Trump’s personal finances.
If a rapidly expanding stablecoin company failed to properly back customer deposits with cash or short-term government securities, regulators could be forced to step in.
And if investors began questioning the stability of World Liberty Financial or other companies connected to it, the resulting uncertainty could spread through financial markets.
That’s why experts say the issue isn’t simply whether Trump’s crypto company becomes “too big.”
It’s that its political connections could make it too powerful to treat like an ordinary company.
Trump’s private business is becoming public infrastructure
The most sweeping concern is what happens when a president controls both political power and a private financial network.
World Liberty Financial’s bank could issue its own money, direct funding through a private financial system and potentially reward business partners while putting pressure on political opponents.
One expert described that as a form of centralization that could give Trump even more control over financial and political flows with little transparency or accountability.
That’s a very different situation from a president simply owning a hotel, golf course or other traditional business.
A bank sits inside the financial system.
And this one is connected directly to the president.
For now, the approval is only preliminary. World Liberty Financial still has to satisfy additional conditions before receiving final approval to operate as a national trust bank, and there is no clear timeline for that decision.
But the direction is clear.
Trump’s private crypto empire is moving closer to becoming a regulated piece of America’s financial infrastructure.
And that raises a question Washington has rarely had to confront:
What happens when the president isn’t just regulating the financial system — but owns part of the bank inside it?
As noted by Huffpots, World Liberty Financial still has to satisfy additional conditions before it can receive final approval to operate as a national trust bank, according to the OCC. There is no clear timeline for when that could happen.
But the company’s preliminary approval may not be the end of the story. If Democrats retake the House or Senate in November, the charter process is likely to face serious congressional scrutiny, including questions about whether Trump’s administration gave his own company preferential treatment.
That oversight could ultimately determine whether a presidentially connected bank becomes a permanent fixture of American politics and finance, or just another Trump-era cash grab.
