World Liberty Financial is moving closer to securing a federal trust bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, with approval now widely expected according to former OCC officials. As reported by NOTUS, OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould is expected to announce a decision on World Liberty's application in the coming days, with two former OCC staff members describing rejection as "inconceivable." The Trump-backed crypto firm established a U.S. trust company and applied for the charter in January, shortly after the OCC granted conditional approvals to several crypto firms including Circle, Ripple, and BitGo. If approved, the charter would allow World Liberty to issue and redeem its USD1 stablecoin, manage reserves, provide digital asset custody, and handle settlement and conversion services under federal supervision. The federal trust bank charter grant would preempt many state regulations, enhance credibility with U.S. institutions, enable more efficient on-platform payments and settlements, and allow direct issuance without relying on third-party intermediaries.
World Liberty Financial has secured a significant sponsorship opportunity at UFC Freedom 250 while facing intense congressional scrutiny. According to reports from The Guardian, UFC President and CEO Dana White announced the partnership Friday at a press conference at the Lincoln Memorial, with World Liberty serving as presenting partner of the event's Performance of the Night bonus. The deal puts USD1 branding inside the Octagon at an event held on the South Lawn of the White House, coinciding with President Trump's 80th birthday. The UFC revealed it was to make those payments in USD1 stablecoin, with the company first announcing its official sponsorship on Wednesday 10 June via x.com, followed by the UFC's announcement on Thursday of separate CRO token bonuses, and finally the Friday announcement of the USD1 sponsorship. The event will be exclusively streamed on Paramount+ in a deal with MAGA media overlord David Ellison, with UFC president Dana White expecting "Super Bowl numbers" in terms of television viewership.
As reported by Sporting News, World Liberty will contribute $250,000 in USD1 stablecoin to the event's fight-night bonus pool, distributed across seven matches based on performance criteria standard to UFC fight-night bonus structures. UFC Freedom 250 is headlined by a lightweight title unification bout between Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje, with former two-division champion Alex Pereira facing Ciryl Gane at heavyweight. The event features total fight-night bonuses of $1.65 million across four fighters, with two Fight of the Night winners each receiving $400,000 and two Performance of the Night winners each receiving $425,000. The World Liberty pool is separate from a $1 million bonus pool denominated in Crypto.com's CRO token. According to The Guardian, the USD1 stablecoins are tradable digital assets that are backed by dollar reserves, separate from the company's controversial governance tokens. The UFC's decision to use this cryptocurrency for fighter bonuses appears to be part of a broader strategy to increase its visibility and adoption in the sports industry.
The White House showcase arrived while World Liberty Financial faced significant challenges in its DeFi operations. As reported by CoinDesk, the company had borrowed more than $75 million in stablecoins from Dolomite, a DeFi lending protocol whose co-founder Corey Caplan advises WLFI, using 3 billion of its own WLFI governance tokens as collateral and depositing its own USD1 as part of the arrangement. The borrowing pushed the USD1 pool to 93% utilization, meaning retail depositors who had lent USD1 to the pool expecting to withdraw at will could not do so until the loans were repaid. WLFI repaid $25 million of the position, then minted $25 million in fresh USD1 days later, actively managing the token's supply through April. The controversy briefly impacted WLFI's token prices and rattled the project's sentiment in social circles. World Liberty Financial did not respond to requests for comment on the report.
The White House showcase arrived while Congress was already scrutinizing WLFI's ownership structure. As reported by The Block, a UAE firm linked to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's national security adviser and brother of the UAE president, acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for a reported $500 million. A separate Tahnoon-linked firm then used USD1 to settle a $2 billion investment in Binance. The House launched a formal probe into potential conflicts of interest and national security risks, focused on what it means for a foreign state official to own nearly half of a sitting US president's crypto company, and for that company's stablecoin to now sit at a $5 billion market cap and rising. The congressional investigation centers on who else profits when those payments settle, raising questions about the foreign ownership structure of a company tied to the US president. Reuters reported on June 9 that the Trump family has earned more than $2.3 billion from four crypto ventures since the start of Trump's second term, with World Liberty accounting for the largest portion of those gains.
According to The Block's data, USD1 has grown to roughly $4.6 billion in circulating supply, up from $3.3 billion on January 1, making it the sixth largest dollar-backed stablecoin by total supply. The $250,000 contribution represents a small portion relative to both the event and World Liberty's operations, with TKO Group Holdings COO Mark Shapiro indicating that Freedom 250 carries a production budget above $60 million, roughly half of it offset by sponsorships. The sponsorship extends World Liberty's push into combat sports, following a memorandum of understanding signed in December 2025 with Mixed Martial Arts Group Limited. World Liberty Financial, a Delaware-based cryptocurrency venture co-founded by Donald Trump and his sons in 2024 alongside the Witkoff sons, has emerged as one of the highest-profile businesses connected to the president's family, with Trump Sr publicly listed as its "Chief Crypto Advocate" and his financial disclosure form listing his holdings as "over $50 million."
