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The company, which specializes in BitPay cryptocurrencies payments, has filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) (the main US banking regulator) to create a national bank: BitPay National Trust Bank.
TheBlock media first reported the news. According to them, this future bank would have its headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia, a suburb of the capital of the state of Atlanta. The address indicated in the deposit file is the same as that of BitPay’s headquarters.
Future leaders of the crypto-bank include Bitpay members Stephen Pair, co-founder and CEO, Tony Gallippi, co-founder, Jagruti Solanki, CFO, Eden Doniger, General Counsel and Compliance Officer, and William Zielke, Director of Marketing.
According to the media, this initiative is the latest example of a crypto company seeking to create a banking institution. Note that Kraken is in the process of establishing a bank in the U.S. state of Wyoming, which is also home to another crypto banking company, Avanti.
“The OCC is at the forefront of government regulation of the cryptocurrencies industry. Our operations as a national trust bank will be subject to strict security and soundness requirements, giving our customers the assurance that our services will remain best-in-class and allow us to be subject to a uniform regulatory framework,” said Eden Doniger, General Counsel and Compliance Officer at BitPay.
This move could help BitPay add numerous services as a platform to its US clients. A bank has significantly more liberty with the type of operations it can offer, such as lending and borrowing for its US customers. There are still question marks around the availability of such services to customers overseas.
All in all, if this were to be accepted it would give a boost to the crypto sector as a whole. In the midst of uncertainty as to how the Biden administration will handle cryptocurrency, such a move is sure to be widely interpreted by media around the world.