‘Brazen act of self-dealing.’ Lawmakers, watchdogs alarmed after Trump regulators let Trump firm start a bank

Key Points:

• World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm launched by Donald Trump and his sons in 2024, has received preliminary conditional approval from regulators to become a trust bank, enabling it to issue its own stablecoin without intermediaries.
• The move has sparked ethical concerns and criticism from lawmakers like Senator Elizabeth Warren, who called it a historic conflict of interest and announced plans for legislation to bar federal regulators from approving banks owned or controlled by top government officials.
• Trump earned over $526 million from World Liberty-related crypto token sales last year and about $263 million from equity sales to investors including a UAE royal, raising worries about self-dealing given his influence over the regulators involved.
• The White House and World Liberty defend the approval, emphasizing independent management of Trump’s investments and the firm’s commitment to regulatory oversight, while agreeing that Trump’s family entity will be a passive investor with no operational control.
• The bank charter approval could complicate efforts to pass the stalled Clarity Act, a bill aimed at establishing a regulatory framework for crypto, as ongoing ethics debates may hinder bipartisan support for the legislation.