Trump-linked World Liberty Financial wins OCC bank approval as $112 million DeFi position sits near liquidation

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) gave World Liberty Financial, a DeFi venture associated with President Donald Trump, preliminary conditional approval to charter a national trust bank built around its roughly $4 billion USD1 stablecoin.World Liberty Trust Company would eventually handle USD1 issuance and reserve custody directly, moving both under federal supervision if the bank clears the conditions still standing between it and final approval.Zach Witkoff, the co-founder and CEO of World Liberty Financial, said:“Rigorous oversight, institutional controls and clear accountability are how stablecoins become trusted financial infrastructure. Our ambition is clear: to build the most trusted and widely used digital dollar in the world while strengthening the role of the US dollar across the global economy.”That institutional step arrives months into the fallout from a DeFi leverage scare centered on World Liberty's own WLFI token, one the company says it has resolved.In April, World Liberty pledged 5 billion WLFI tokens, roughly 5% of total supply at the time, as collateral on the lending protocol Dolomite.The company borrowed about $75 million in stablecoins agains...