Cheyenne-based Commercium Financial has been granted a special purpose depository institution (SPDI) bank charter in Wyoming to handle digital assets.
- The bank joins Kraken, Avanti Financial, and Wyoming Deposit and Transfer in receiving charter application approval, but so far none of the applicants have received a certificate of authority to operate, meaning that they are not yet open for business.
- Commercium Financial is not related to the proof-of-work cryptocurrency Commercium (CMM), the Wyoming Division of Banking confirmed in an email.
- When the Wyoming-chartered crypto banks open, they’ll offer a variety of digital asset services that are novel for the institutions in the banking industry. SPDIs, however, are not allowed to lend, and each bank has to hold 100% of its customer deposits in reserve.
- “This Charter allows us to deploy a unique set of technology solutions that connect traditional banking systems to tokenized assets and securities,” Jonathan Dever, Chief Executive Officer of Commercium Financial, said in a press release. “Commercium’s mission is to create a fully digital and automated financial institution that offers a blend of traditional banking and new to the market digitization and asset tokenization products. Regulatory compliance is at the heart of what we do.”