Why is Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is applying for a banking license right now?

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), linked to Donald Trump, has formally applied for a national banking charter to establish the World Liberty Trust Company, a trust bank designed to handle the issuance, custody, and reserve management for its USD1 stablecoin, which has over $3.3 billion in supply. This move signals a strategic shift from stablecoins acting as a 'market hack' for speculative trading to becoming regulated settlement infrastructure for mainstream finance. The trust bank charter, which focuses on fiduciary activities like custody rather than traditional lending, aims to secure counterparty confidence from large institutions by signaling strict federal oversight. Furthermore, it allows WLFI to vertically integrate operations, potentially capturing margins currently paid to third-party vendors, and enhances credibility for future connectivity to core U.S. payment systems. This pursuit is seen as a strategic hedge to ensure WLFI can compete on structural efficiency and compliance as the stablecoin market matures and interest rates potentially decline, forcing issuers to rely less on high-yield incentives.

(Source：CryptoSlate)