Wall Street Veteran Aims at Institutional Investors With a New Crypto Bank

A new crypto-focused bank is set to open in 2021 in the U.S. state of Wyoming in order to provide institutional-level investment infrastructure for cryptoassets, while abiding by strict regulatory requirements.

Caitlin Long. Source: A video screenshot, Youtube/ReasonTV

The company, called Avanti Bank, is already seed-funded and has partnered with major, Canada-based blockchain company Blockstream, according to 22-year Wall Street veteran Caitlin Long, Co-founder of the bank and of the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition. She promised to reveal other co-founders and the team “soon.”

“A critical piece of U.S. market infrastructure is missing—a regulated bank that can act as a bridge to Federal reserve for payments and custody crypto for BIG institutional money (pension funds, endowments, foundations, corporations, sovereign wealth funs) who need this by entering crypto in a big way. Regulation had blocked it,” she said.

The bank aims to bring institutional wealth into the crypto sphere and is seeking to apply for a Special Purpose Depository Institution charter in Wyoming. According to Long, this is the optimal regulatory-compliant structure in the U.S. for providing financial services around crypto for large institutional investors.

Also, the Co-founder said that the company is platform-neutral and its clients will be able to choose various assets outside of Bitcoin (BTC) for investment purposes. The only requirements for the company will be security and regulatory compliance — otherwise, all assets are on the table.

“Avanti WILL COMPLY [with all] U.S. federal know-your-customer, anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing & related laws,” Long promised.