Wall Street Pioneer Caitlin Long has announced on 24 February that Crypto Services focused bank will soon be operational in 2021 to aid the institutional investors to develop institutional level infrastructure for Crypto assets.

Caitlin Long, who is also known as Blockchain Legislative supporter and Wyoming Corporation which is co-founded by her are preparing to form this special purpose bank which will be christened as Avanti Bank which means Ahead or Forward in Italy. Long and her associates are going to apply for a Special Purpose Depository Institution (SPDI) charter with the State Department of Banking

The Avanti bank will strictly be working under regulatory compliance and will serve especially the institutional investors. Caitlin long will be the co-founder of the upcoming bank has informed that they would be associated with another Canada based blockchain company Blockstream to offer institutional-grade custody for crypto-assets.

In her statement, Long said, “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 funds} who need this by entering crypto in a big way. The regulations had blocked it".

Special Purpose Depository Institution (SPDI)

The bank aspires to bring significant institutional investment in crypto industry space and is going to opt for Special Purpose Depository Institution (SPDI) charter in Wyoming.

Long believes that this is the optimal regulatory compliance structure in the US for offering crypto-related financial services for the major institutional investors.

Long further added that the company platform will be neutral towards old crypto assets and would ensure that the customers would be able to choose any of the assets apart from Bitcoin (BTC) for the investment. The prerequisite for the investment companies would be to abide by the security and regulatory compliance. Long assured that Avanti itself will ensure to comply with all the essential US federal laws such as Anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist , Know Your Customer(KYC) and will protest consumers' money with 100 fiat reserves.

Wyoming will be the first U.S state to have a cryptocurrency and blockchain-focused bank. Avanti has raised dollar 1 million in a recently held seed funding round.

Back in November 2019, new legislation had been introduced in Wyoming that allows crypto companies to reject the BitLicense requirement in New York. The same legislation also allows the formation of special-purpose depository Institutions (SPDIs) which are popularly known as blockchain banks will allow the formation of Avanti Bank in Wyoming.

Jayashree Ingle

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA