The U.S. state of Wyoming is leading the way in blockchain and cryptocurrency adoption in the country with a new cryptocurrency-native bank. A former Wall Street veteran, Caitlin Long, announced the Avanti Bank, saying that it will be active in early 2021.
Long, who previously helped the state of Wyoming to implement 13 blockchain laws, made the announcement yesterday. In a series of tweets, she introduced the Avanti Bank – “a new U.S. bank to serve [the] digital asset industry.”
According to Long, the crypto-bank will fill the gap between the traditional banking system and the newly-raising trend of cryptocurrencies. Also, she believes that it will help the U.S. to keep up with other countries in this manner:
“A critical piece of U.S. market infrastructure is missing – a regulated bank that can act as a bridge to Fed for payments + custody crypto for big institutional money who need this before entering crypto in a big way.
For various regulatory reasons, existing U.S. banks & trust companies can’t provide optimal services to crypto. Avanti plans to break that logjam & thereby help keep the U.S. from falling behind other countries whose regulated banks are already serving institutions in this market.”
Long’s new company recently applied to receive a bank charter from the Wyoming Division of Banking under the special-purpose depository institution (SPDI) law. If the Cowboy State approves the application, the cryptocurrency-friendly bank will begin operations in early 2021.
“Not your keys, not your coins,” is arguably one of the most well-known phrases in the cryptocurrency space. Digital asset investors advise that the only way to ensure the safety of one’s coins is to keep them on personal wallets and to protect the private keys. Long seemed informed about it and addressed it:
7/ But wait, what about #NotYourKeysNotYourCoins? @AvantiBT respects this ethos & plans to offer various levels of institutional custody services accordingly (incl multisig signing-as-a-service, new @Blockstream features & more).
— Caitlin Long 🔑 (@CaitlinLong_) February 24, 2020
The Avanti bank, with its name meaning “forward” or “ahead” in Latin, will “first and foremost respond to needs of institutional customers.” Additionally, it will service Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. At the time of this writing, though, it’s unclear which or how many other digital assets the bank will work with.
In terms of U.S. regulations, Long said that the bank will comply will all KYC, anti-money laundering, or terrorist financing laws.