More than $1.6 billion has flowed to President Donald Trump and his family through World Liberty Financial, by Reuters' calculation as of April, with an estimated $50 million of that traced to the venture's USD1 stablecoin through June 2026. On Friday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave conditional preliminary approval to a national trust charter for World Liberty Trust Company, the banking entity the venture applied to open in January. The charter, if it clears final conditions, would let World Liberty directly issue USD1 and hold the dollar reserves backing it, two roles currently filled by a third-party custodian, BitGo.
| Metric | Reported figure | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| World Liberty Financial total to Trump family | $1.6B+ | Reuters calculation, as of April |
| Trump family earnings from USD1 | ~$50M | Reuters estimate, through June 2026 |
| USD1 market capitalization | ~$4B | 4th-largest stablecoin |
| OCC minimum capital condition | $20M | Required for final charter |
What the charter actually unlocks
A national trust charter is narrower than a commercial bank license. It allows the holder to manage and hold assets for clients and settle payments faster, but it does not permit deposit-taking or lending. The practical draw is federal reach: a single OCC charter replaces a patchwork of state licenses and signals regulatory standing to institutional clients that require supervised custodians. Ripple and Circle have received similar preliminary approvals under Comptroller Jonathan Gould, a Trump appointee.
The operative shift for World Liberty is vertical integration. USD1, a dollar-pegged token announced in March 2025, has grown to roughly $4 billion in circulating market cap. Today BitGo sits between the stablecoin and its issuer. An approved trust charter would bring issuance, custody, and reserve management in-house under continuous OCC examination.
Leadership ties to Trump's circle
World Liberty Trust's proposed leadership runs directly through Trump's diplomatic orbit. Zach Witkoff, son of Trump's special diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff and a co-founder of World Liberty Financial in late 2024, is CEO of the financial firm and president and chairman of the trust entity. Robert Witkoff, Steve's brother and a former insurance executive, is a proposed director. Scott Alper, president of the Witkoff family's real estate business, is another.
Eric Trump signed a passivity agreement as president of a Trump-family affiliated investment vehicle, pledging not to seek to influence the bank's operations. The OCC said it received similar commitments from other investors, including non-U.S. holders, after public comments raised concerns about foreign ownership in World Liberty Financial. Democratic senators had separately asked Treasury to examine national security implications of a reported $500 million stake purchase linked to the United Arab Emirates' national security adviser.
The OCC, which sits inside Treasury and operates without a bipartisan board, said in its approval letter that career staff, not political appointees, reviewed the application, and that Gould acted within his statutory duties.