Avanti, the Wyoming-based crypto-focused bank, has announced on Thursday that its application for a bank charter was accepted as complete by the state’s banking division.
The application timeline has also been accelerated, and the bank is now eying to launch its services in October this year.
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Unveiled last February, Avanti is led by Caitlin Long, a former Wall Street executive and a well-known blockchain legislation advocate. The bank was registered with $1 million in seed funding and later raised $5 million from several participants in an angel round.
“Our charter application incorporates truly novel ideas that have received detailed scrutiny from multiple regulators,” Long said in a statement.
Notably, the bank will focus only on the institutional client base and will provide an array of services including payment, custody, securities, and commodities activities.
An internal digital currency in development
The official blog post also detailed a new product of Avanti – a digital asset called Avit, and the bank is looking at it as a “the stablecoin disruptor.”
The bank explained that the digital asset cannot be seen as a security, and it falls more to the likes of cash. It will be issued under the legal framework of the US commercial laws.
The digital currency can be programmed using an API and “is designed for use by institutional traders and corporate treasurers when they prefer a real-time payment settlement solution in US dollars.”
It will challenge the delayed settlement and cutback issues of traditional payment solutions and will ensure fast and reliable transactions between its clients.
“I’m thrilled that the OCC yesterday followed Wyoming in allowing banks to provide custody for digital assets,” Long said, mentioning the recent decision of allowing US banks to offer crypto custody. “Wyoming has been developing its digital asset custody initiative for two years and already has a comprehensive framework and supervisory process in place, which does not exist elsewhere.”