Avanti Granted Bank Charter And Approval Of Business Plan For Digital Asset Custody And Tokenized U.S. Dollar

The Wyoming State Banking Board today voted 8-0 to grant Avanti Bank & Trust a bank charter, the type of which gives Avanti the same powers as national banks in its approved business lines. Avanti’s approved business plan includes several products and services, including a tokenized U.S. dollar called Avit™*; custody services for digital assets as a “qualified custodian” under the Investment Advisers Act; API-based online banking services, where customer deposits must be 100% backed by reserves; and prime services for digital assets. Avanti plans to provide commercial accounts in early 2021 and other accounts with high minimum balance requirements soon thereafter.

“Avanti’s mission is to provide a compliant bridge between the traditional and digital asset financial systems, with the strictest level of institutional custody standards,” said Caitlin Long, Avanti’s founder and chief executive officer. “We will provide products and services that do not exist in the market today. Currently the only type of U.S. financial institution that can provide final and simultaneous settlement of trades between digital assets and the U.S. dollar—because it is the only type currently approved to handle both within the same legal entity—is a Wyoming special purpose depository institution like Avanti. Wyoming has the only U.S. regulator with a bank supervisory and regulatory program for digital assets that is near completion.”

Avanti’s approved products include the issuance of a tokenized U.S. dollar, Avit (rhymes with “have it”). Avit is designed to solve widely-acknowledged problems with legacy payment systems faced by traders, investors and corporate treasurers. Nicknamed the “stablecoin disruptor,” it is also designed to solve the legal, accounting and tax issues of stablecoins. “We need this product yesterday,” said the chief executive officer of one of Avanti’s likely initial customers, in describing Avit. Executed by a highly experienced and proven engineering team, Avanti plans to issue Avit initially on both Liquid (a sidechain of the Bitcoin blockchain, in coordination with Blockstream) and Ethereum, and will consider issuing Avit on other blockchains in the future based on customer demand and its assessment of network security.

As a bank, Avanti will fully comply with all applicable Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering and OFAC-related laws, rules and regulations.


Interested parties and potential customers can contact Custodia at [email protected]. Press can contact Custodia at [email protected].

About Custodia: Custodia Bank, Inc. is a Wyoming bank formed to serve as a compliant bridge to the U.S. dollar payments system and a custodian of digital assets that can meet the strictest level of institutional custody standards. Custodia is required to fully comply with all applicable laws and regulations, including the Bank Secrecy Act and federal “know your customer,” anti-money laundering and related laws and regulations. Custodia will also comply with Wyoming’s special purpose depository institution and digital asset laws, which include requirements that fiat deposits be 100% reserved and that Custodia meet the strictest investor protections in the digital asset industry. This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies (including product offerings, regulatory plans and business plans) and may change without notice. You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.

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