Avanti Bank & Trust, Wyoming-based pioneering financial institution planning to offer services to the crypto industry, has announced plans for a ‘stablecoin disruptor’ that’s designed to modernize U.S. dollar payments.
In a July 23 announcement, Avanti said that the payment instrument, dubbed ‘Avit,’ is not a security and predicted it “will likely be treated as a cash equivalent” by regulators. Avit will be programmable via Avanti’s API.
The firm believes Avit will see adoption among “institutional traders and corporate treasurers,” and described the monetary commodity as “a real-time payment settlement solution in US dollars that does not suffer from the delayed settlement and chargeback issues of traditional payment solutions, or the legal, accounting, and tax issues of stablecoins.”
Wyoming accepts Avanti’s bank charter application
Avanti also revealed that the Wyoming Division of Banking has accepted its application for a bank charter on July 15, bringing the targeted launch date for its banking business forward to October of this year.
“Our charter application incorporates truly novel ideas that have received detailed scrutiny from multiple regulators,” said Avanti CEO and Wall Street veteran, Caitlin Long.
“It is the culmination of an enormous effort by Avanti’s fantastic team — several thousand hours of planning and work with regulators, and hundreds of pages of supporting policies, procedures and documentation.”
Game On!
Long also expressed delight with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s July 22 announcement permitting federally chartered banks to custody crypto assets, tweeting: “GAME ON!”
While emphasizing the benefits of the news to the broader crypto ecosystem, Long said Wyoming had a massive lead over rival states in making it happen, having already spent two years “developing its digital asset custody initiative”.
“The OCC and 49 other states do not yet have in place the comprehensive legal structure necessary for enabling digital asset custody without significant legal risk,” Long said.
“They also do not have a roadmap for courts to adjudicate disputes involving digital assets and do not provide the certainty in bankruptcy that Wyoming provides for digital asset custodians," she added.