Avanti Financial Joins Kraken as a Wyoming-Approved Crypto Bank

Blockchain pioneer Caitlin Long is now the CEO of her own special purpose depository institution (SPDI) in Wyoming. 

Avanti Financial’s banking charter was approved unanimously by the Wyoming State Banking Board on Wednesday, becoming the second newly chartered bank in the state in 2020 after Kraken Financial earned approval last month.

Avanti, like Kraken, now has to jump through a few hoops – like raising more capital – before it can be granted a certificate of authority to operate.

“Kraken definitely captured attention, but now that there’s a second one chartered it’s no longer a one-off situation and a trend is in motion,” Long told CoinDesk in an email.

Along with the charter approval, the banking board approved Avanti’s future issuance of Avit, a programmable electronic currency that’s redeemable at par with a U.S. dollar. The Avit is not a security token, meaning it is not a digital representation of an investment that’s expected to generate returns.

The Avit will be issued initially on Bitcoin sidechain Liquid and then on Ethereum, Long said. 

Read more: Unpacking the Avit, Avanti Bank’s New Digital Asset Being Built With Blockstream

The bank has previously raised $5 million in an angel round and brought on a C-suite of five executives from the traditional banking and digital asset industries, including Bitcoin Core developer Bryan Bishop.