Caitlin Long is an American entrepreneur and digital asset advocate best known as the founder and chief executive officer of Custodia Bank, a Wyoming based digital asset bank that focuses on compliant infrastructure for institutional crypto markets. She is also a prominent figure in Wyoming’s blockchain ecosystem and a recurring organizer and supporter of WyoHackathon, a developer focused event that highlights projects building on major public blockchains.
Overview
Long is widely recognized for helping to bridge traditional Wall Street finance and the emerging digital asset industry. After more than two decades in institutional finance, she became an early proponent of Bitcoin and blockchain technology and has since focused on building bank grade infrastructure and legal frameworks for digital assets. Her work emphasizes full reserve banking models, robust custody standards, and clear regulatory treatment of crypto assets in the United States.
History and Background
Long earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wyoming, then completed a joint J.D. and Master in Public Policy program at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She began her career at Salomon Brothers in the mid 1990s, later holding senior roles at Credit Suisse before joining Morgan Stanley, where she led the firm’s pension solutions business from 2007 to 2016. This background gave her extensive experience in capital markets, risk management, and institutional client services.
Her interest in Bitcoin grew around 2012, when she began analyzing how blockchain based settlement might reduce counterparty and settlement risk in traditional markets. Long became an active commentator on digital asset policy and market structure and later served as chairman and president of enterprise blockchain firm Symbiont, which worked on delivering financial market data and infrastructure over distributed ledgers for institutional clients.
Roles at Custodia Bank and WyoHackathon
In 2020 Long founded Custodia Bank, originally branded as Avanti, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Custodia obtained a Wyoming Special Purpose Depository Institution charter, a state level framework designed for banks that handle digital assets under strict reserve and asset segregation requirements. The bank’s goal is to provide institutional clients with United States dollar payment services, digital asset custody, and blockchain integrated on and off ramps that can meet bank level compliance expectations.
Long has also been closely associated with WyoHackathon, an annual blockchain hackathon and conference hosted in Wyoming that brings together developers, entrepreneurs, regulators, and academics. The event showcases applications in areas such as decentralized finance, digital identity, and non fungible tokens and reinforces the state’s strategy of pairing regulatory innovation with hands on technical experimentation.
Technology and Policy Focus
Through Custodia Bank and her broader advocacy, Long has emphasized conservative balance sheet management, fully reserved dollar deposits, and clear separation between customer assets and a bank’s own funds. Custodia has promoted on chain settlement tools that allow clients to move value between traditional banking rails and public blockchains while maintaining audit trails and compliance controls suitable for institutional investors.
- Design of infrastructure that integrates bank grade controls with public blockchain settlement.
- Promotion of clear legal definitions for digital assets in commercial and banking law.
- Advocacy for transparent, risk based supervision of digital asset institutions.
- Support for broader education through events such as WyoHackathon.
Use Cases and Market Position
Custodia Bank targets institutional clients such as hedge funds, asset managers, corporates, and fintech firms that need both digital asset custody and reliable dollar payment infrastructure. By combining a state chartered bank structure with blockchain native settlement tools, the platform is intended to reduce counterparty risk, enable faster transaction finality, and support institutional adoption of assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum without relying solely on lightly regulated trading venues.
Risks and Considerations
Despite its fully reserved model and Wyoming charter, Custodia has faced scrutiny from federal regulators, including challenges related to access to Federal Reserve payment services. These disputes highlight broader policy questions about how crypto focused banks should connect to the core of the banking system and what safeguards are required to manage volatility, cybersecurity threats, and compliance risks. Long’s ongoing work, both through Custodia Bank and initiatives such as WyoHackathon, continues to influence debates around how regulated banking and open blockchain networks can safely intersect.
