BlockBeats news: On January 14, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren called for a pause in the application process for World Liberty Trust Co.'s U.S. trust bank charter until President Trump divests his family's holdings in related digital asset businesses.
On Tuesday, Warren wrote a letter to Jonathan Gould, the Comptroller of the Currency. An affiliate of World Liberty Financial Inc. is applying for a charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which would allow it to directly issue the USD1 stablecoin. In her letter, Warren asked Gould to delay the approval process while Trump still holds equity that could potentially create a conflict of interest. "We have never seen a financial conflict of interest or corruption of this magnitude," Warren wrote in the letter. "Congress failed to address these issues when passing the GENIUS Act, so the Senate must take responsibility for addressing these real and serious conflicts of interest when considering legislation on the structure of the crypto market."
Warren is the top Democratic senator on the Senate Banking Committee, and the bill is scheduled for a hearing on Thursday. The draft of the bill, released late Monday night, does not yet include government ethics provisions that Democratic senators have requested during lengthy negotiations. It remains unclear how this issue will be resolved as the committee is about to consider amendments and possibly vote on whether to send the bill to the full Senate.