Trump Family Crypto Venture Wins Preliminary Approval for National Trust Bank Charter

The Trump family's crypto empire is expanding into banking. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has given preliminary approval for World Liberty Trust Company (WLTC), a company affiliated with the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial, to obtain a national trust bank charter.

This move would mark an unprecedented arrangement: A sitting president's family would have a financial stake in a federally chartered bank. However, it's worth noting that national trust banks like WLTC don't offer traditional banking services and instead focus on digital assets and cryptocurrencies.

The WLTC would specifically center around stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar. The company could make money by issuing and redeeming these stablecoins for US dollars, earning interest on the billions in reserves backing them.