Banks are becoming crypto companies while crypto companies are becoming banks 🏦; Coinbase Empire is about to get a lot bigger 🤯; One catalyst that could supercharge NFTs going mainstream 🚀

Good Morning FinTech, March 29

Good day Everyone,

And happy Tuesday! I hope Monday wasn’t too difficult for you. If you’re still getting up to speed, these 3 great FinTech stories will definitely give you a boost. Take a dive with me:

Banks are becoming crypto companies while crypto companies are becoming banks 🏦

The news 🗞 Wyoming-based digital asset bank Kraken Bank - a subsidiary of Kraken crypto exchange - moved a step closer toward being granted a Federal Reserve Master Account and gaining the same access to the global payments system as traditional banks, CoinDesk reported.

Once granted, Kraken would be well-positioned to serve the market by effectively being treated as a traditional bank.

More on this 👉 The American Bankers Association (ABA) recently granted Kraken a routing number, bringing it one step closer to receiving one of the highly coveted Federal Reserve master accounts, which would allow it to deposit funds with the Fed and access the global payments system. Custodia Bank (formerly Avanti) was given a routing number last month.

Both Kraken & Custodia is a special purpose depository institution (SPDI), a Wyoming-specific regulatory designation allowing these firms to support digital asset banking activities.

What’s the impact? This is actually huge and part of the transformational trend we’ve started to see more and more in Finance. Here’s the takeaway: