Last updated on January 31st, 2026 at 02:01 am
Quick Breakdown
- Elizabeth Warren is urging regulators to pause World Liberty Financial’s bank charter review over Trump-linked conflicts of interest.
- World Liberty, co-founded by Trump and his sons, is seeking approval to issue and manage its USD1 stablecoin.
- Democrats are pushing for ethics safeguards in upcoming crypto legislation, though current drafts lack such provisions.
US Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling on federal banking regulators to pause consideration of a bank charter application from World Liberty Financial, citing what she describes as unprecedented conflicts of interest tied to President Donald Trump.
In a letter sent Tuesday to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) head Jonathan Gould, Warren asked the agency to hold off on reviewing the application until Trump fully divests from the crypto platform and eliminates any financial ties involving himself or his family.
World Liberty’s stablecoin ambitions under scrutiny
Earlier this month, a World Liberty subsidiary, WLTC Holdings, applied for a national trust bank charter that would allow it to issue, custody and convert its stablecoin, USD1.
World Liberty lists President Trump and his sons, Barron, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. as co-founders. The platform has reportedly generated billions of dollars in paper wealth for the Trump family, raising concerns among Democrats that the president could benefit directly from regulatory decisions made under his administration.
The GENIUS Act, signed into law last year by Trump, placed stablecoin oversight largely under the OCC, making the agency responsible for approving applications like World Liberty’s and supervising stablecoin issuers.
Warren says she has “no confidence” in OCC leadership
Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said she does not trust Gould to impartially assess World Liberty’s application, pointing to his previous dismissal of questions about how he would prevent presidential influence over the agency.
She warned that Gould would be responsible for both setting rules that could affect World Liberty’s profitability and enforcing laws against the company, all while serving at the president’s pleasure.
Her comments come ahead of a Senate Banking Committee debate on a broader crypto market structure bill scheduled for Thursday. While a draft released this week does not include conflict-of-interest provisions sought by Democrats, negotiations are ongoing.
Meanwhile, the Senate Agriculture Committee has delayed its own review of the bill until later this month after some lawmakers pushed for stronger ethics guardrails.
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