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US Senator Elizabeth Warren has urged the nation’s top banking regulator to pause review of a bank charter sought by World Liberty Financial until President Donald Trump divests his financial interests in the crypto venture. On Tuesday, in a letter to Office of the Comptroller of the Currency head Jonathan Gould, Warren asked the agency to delay action on the application.
She said the review should not proceed until Trump removes all financial conflicts involving himself, his family, and the company. The request centers on a proposed national trust bank that would support stablecoin issuance, custody, and conversion. This move arrives as Congress prepares to debate broader crypto market structure legislation.
Warren said the scale of the conflicts tied to the application has no modern precedent.
She told the comptroller that Congress did not address these issues when it passed the GENIUS Act. Because of that gap, she said the Senate must confront the conflicts during upcoming crypto legislation talks.
Earlier this month, WLTC Holdings, a World Liberty subsidiary, filed for a national trust bank charter. Approval would allow the firm to issue, custody, and convert its dollar-pegged stablecoin, USD1. The OCC holds authority to approve such applications and supervise stablecoin-related banks.
Warren said she lacks confidence that the OCC would assess the bid impartially under current conditions. She pointed to Gould’s past responses to ethics questions about presidential influence over the agency. Those concerns, she noted, require a pause before any regulatory review continues.
World Liberty Financial maintains close ties to Trump and members of his family.
Regulatory filings list Trump and his sons Barron, Eric, and Donald Jr. as co-founders of a subsidiary seeking the charter. The proposed bank would oversee operations tied to USD1.
USD1 functions as a dollar-linked stablecoin and has recorded rapid adoption and strong trading activity. The bank charter would place these operations under a federal banking framework. That framework stems from the GENIUS Act, which named the OCC as the primary stablecoin regulator.
Warren argued the structure creates overlapping authority concerns, highlighting the comptroller would oversee rules that shape World Liberty’s profits. At the same time, the office would enforce laws affecting both the company and its competitors.
Warren serves as the senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. The committee plans to debate a crypto market structure bill on Thursday, aiming to set clearer rules for digital asset markets.
The Senate Agriculture Committee had planned a parallel debate. Republicans delayed that session to seek broader bipartisan backing. Some lawmakers had pressed for explicit conflict-of-interest guardrails. A Banking Committee draft released Monday showed no ethics provisions.
Democrats had requested such measures before the bill advanced. Further talks and amendments remain possible as the process continues. Warren warned that the comptroller serves at the pleasure of the president; she said this would place oversight of World Liberty under a president tied to the company.
Would federal banking supervision remain independent if a sitting president oversaw his own crypto firm?
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Senator Elizabeth Warren has asked the OCC to delay reviewing World Liberty Financial’s bank charter bid until President Donald Trump divests his ties. This request raises concerns about conflicts of interest, regulatory independence, and stablecoin oversight as Congress debates crypto market structure under the GENIUS Act.
