Caitlin Long had sought to be one of Washington's biggest allies for bringing crypto assets into the regulated banking space. Instead, she has found herself one of its biggest adversaries. Long is the Founder and CEO of Custodia Bank, a Cheyenne, Wyo,-based special purpose depository institution that aimed to be a bridge between digital assets and the traditional banking system. However, those plans were stymied when the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City denied Custodia a so-called master account, effectively cutting the bank off from the central bank's payment rails. Custodia's master account rejection was one of a number of actions that Long and other say amount to cutting off crypto banking at the knees. In this Leaders, she discusses these regulator developments, what they mean for the sector broadly, and how her firm is fighting back against them.
