Small Texas Lender Monet Joining Field of Crypto-Focused Banks

Monet Bank, a small Texas community bank owned by a billionaire political supporter of President Donald Trump, has stepped into the field of crypto lenders, billing itself as an "infrastructure bank" with a focus on digital assets. "Monet is focused on being the premier digital asset financial institution, providing innovative and forward-facing solutions for the digital economy," according to its website. Though at less than $6 billion in assets and slightly more than $1 billion in capital, according to state records, the institution would be considered a very small, community bank.

The Texas lender opened in 1988 as Beal Savings Bank and earlier this year changed its name to XD Bank before changing again two months later to Monet Bank. The state-chartered institution is regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and has six offices, according to federal data.

Owner Andy Beal, who founded Beal Financial Corp., is known as a high-level poker player and a major 2016 backer of Trump's successful presidential campaign, having funded his own political action committee. The Information first reported on Monet Bank's shift to focus on digital assets earlier Friday.

It joins a slowly growing field of banks aiming to serve the crypto industry. In October, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted a conditional charter to Erebor Bank, a new tech-focused firm backed by Founders Fund's Peter Thiel (who is also invested in CoinDesk parent Bullish. And earlier this week, former Signature Bank executives launched N3XT, a narrow bank chartered as a Wyoming Special Purpose Depository Institution that says it will settle payments instantaneously through a private blockchain.

The shift comes amid a broader change in how federal bank regulators are approaching crypto. Since Trump took office, his regulators have withdrawn existing guidance warning banks under their supervision to be careful handling crypto and published fresh guidance aiming to let the crypto industry better access banking services.

The FDIC's acting chair, Travis Hill, told lawmakers that his agency also expected to propose rules for the crypto industry — tied to the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act — during a hearing earlier this week.

Beal's company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent to a media line at its affiliate, Beal Bank.