How Traditional Banking Helps 'Crypto Curious'

through a highly unregulated market. According to the release on Globe Newswire at nine thirty, Walmart would start letting its customers pay with light coin, a relatively obscure instrument that isn't even among the top ten cryptocurrencies. That's according to coin market cap dot com. Well, let's get into it with Brad Scrivener, chief executive officer at Vast Bank, joining us on the phone from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Vast Bank is the first bank in the country to offer crypto banking. Brad,

it's great to have you on the show. What went through your mind this morning when you saw this news later determined to be false. Well, certainly, whenever we see something like that, and thanks for having me on the show, Tim,

I really appreciate being on right now. But you know, when you see things like that, you know that crypto has certainly arrived, right, I mean for it to pop up on the headlines like that, and uh, you know, where we are a national bank, we're highly regulated, We're going to do the right things and uh, you know, for us, I feel good to be positioned where we are, uh and knowing that, like I said, we're going to do the right things when it comes to the crypto markets.

But I do wonder if it you know, there's this fight for legitimacy I think when it comes to the crypto community. And correct me if I'm wrong, but it certainly seems like that that fight is continuing, and I'm wondering if if this type of thing sets that that that fight for legitimacy back. You know, I think you're hitting on a really key point here, and some of the research shows this right there. There are those crypto curious out there, there are those institutions out there, and

what they're looking for is some certainty. They're looking for the things that here in the United States that we have, which is, you know, a a legal way to participate in these types of things. So that's why as a national bank, I think this is a really good thing. Those folks that are crypto curious, they would like to participate, but they're just not going to go out there and open and up an account with someone that that they

may not know. Uh. You know, we've been around for thirty nine years, highly regulated from the Office of the Control of the Currency, and I think it's things like that that are going to give institutions and individuals greater confidence to be able to come into the market to the extent that they want to. Well, that's interesting that you mentioned that there is this kind of desire for

for people to use this more broadly. But what's it going to take to get that kind of normalcy that perhaps the dollar or the gold that other other currencies really have here at a time when you do actually have some major companies PayPal, Venmo, um Tesla that have come out and actually supported the currency. Overstock is another one. So how what is it going to take? Who do

you need the bit from? Well, you know, judging from the reaction that we've had since our announcement, you know, as the first national bank to to come out with this capability to purchase directly from your account, okay up to eight current cryptocurrencies, So I think folks are out there looking for certainty, and we had people contacting us saying, hey, we want to participate, but we were waiting for a national bank to get involved because there's this expectation that, um,

we are highly regulated. We do have people that are that are reviewing us regularly. Uh, and in terms of our our regulators. So I think this is a really really good first up. And when the o c C came out with the interpretive letter that said that this was an acceptable activity, meaning custody of a of a crypto assets, um, you know, that was a really good first step. And I think it's good for our country to bring this into a regulated banner and people will

have greater competence. Let me follow that up with asking about the bank specifically, how exposed is the bank specifically to crypto as opposed to as opposed to simply through your clients. Well, when you say exposed to crypto, we do not bring on crypto assets directly onto our balance chiefs, so there would be no exposure, uh in terms of safety and soundness like that. You know, I've used this

analogy before. Think about, um, you know what's going on like a safety deposit box, right, everybody's familiar with that inside of your your bank. Well, that's the equivalent of like the digital wallet, and those digital currencies inside of that safety deposit box are yours, just like if you are storing you know, jewelry or whatever the case may

be inside of a safety deposit box. So the value of that going up and down, that is the customer's responsibility to understand those pieces, but the bank directly is not exposed to that volatility. Let's get right back to Brad Scrivener, CEO at Vast Bank. Vast Bank the first bank in the country to offer crypto banking. Brad joins

us on the phone from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Brad, I'm wondering this is a the bank has been around since so it's not new, even though many people listening right now probably haven't heard of it because it is a local bank. I'm wondering, as the CEO of the company, how you're thinking about turning this bank's local profile into a national profile as you adopt cryptocurrency. Yeah. So, uh, we're a family owned bank, like have been around thirty nine years and at the end of the day, we know customer

preferences have continued to change. Technology has changed rapidly, so we knew we needed to be able to remain relevant

UH to those ever changing customer needs. And UH we may had a partnership that we put in place starting in with s A P. So we came the first bank in the country to do the S A P banking services starting then UH, and then in when Mr Brooks and the o c C made the announcement that under our charter UH national banks could custody crypto assets, we were positioned with a technology stat or excuse me, a technology stack that enabled us to pivot and then

be able to bring forward the custody of these digital assets that we're talking about today. Well, speaking of those digital assets, I'm wondering right now, what portion of your bank is made up of people doing you know, quote unquote traditional banking not involving cryptocurrencies, versus people who do crypto banking. Yeah, So we've had a really strong uptake.

We are in all fifty states, UH in terms of the digital assets side with with the bank, also in the in the territories Puerto Rico, Guam, and d C. And we've only been at this for two weeks, so we feel really good about that now. Obviously, from a revenue standpoint, UH, the traditional bank still UH dominates that side of the revenue stream. But we were very pleased

with with the folks that have come on. And you know it's in the app stores right now, so UH app Store, Google Play, you can go downloaded and basically within five minutes to be ready to go. Where are you seeing the entry is coming from? Geographically here in the US, where are most people signing up from? You know, we're California, New York, UM, Texas, Oklahoma, clearly that's our backyard. UH and Florida would be the top five memory right now.

We've got a real time reporting system that shows us as you know. In fact, if you guys wanted to sign up right now, I could see it as you as you came on. I'm wondering about some other elements of the bank just as I go through your website here and when I was preparing for this interview, one thing that stuck out to me was you offer a checking account with two point oh five a p y, which is just so much higher than what you see anywhere else right now? Is this completely unrelated to the

crypto portion? Yeah, So if you think about this, I mean, we're bank, right, so you've got a dd A portion and there are some activities that we want you to participate with that on debit card and those those type of things. But when you sign up for this mobile banking are through the mobile banking app, you get access to eight cryptocurrencies to be able to purchase. So, uh, you'll see that right on the mobile app. Uh, and

the ability to do those things. But yes, that and I'll just remind folks that that's in f d I S A portion ensured portion through that deposit account which everyone is familiar with. And then on the cryptocurrency side that would be separate from that. Okay, well, let's talk a little bit about how you make money and the revenue model here. When it comes to the crypto portfolio, you offer one percent trading fees. I'm I'm wondering, is that the Is that the way you plan on making

money with this account? Well? Yes, right now that that would be an exchange be we partner with coin base with the exchange one percent exchange free us D to those eight cryptocurrencies. Uh. And then down the road, a custodian could be put in place. Uh, and typically that would be associated with a cold custody, which that's an on offline UH storage solution just to give larger uh depositors, are larger folks, holy cryptocurrency greater confidence in terms of

that hole. What's cryptocurrencies are you seeing as the most popular in your accounts? Bitcoin has been the top one ethereum and then cardono believe I heard light coin earlier was the you know the Walmart announcement. That's that's one of them as well, right, the one that what didn't end up being we should note it wasn't a real announcement. Yeah, that's the fake announce thank you? Right? Yeah? So, uh, file coin orchid algorith in bitcoin cash, those are the

I think I named the eight. Is there one team? You know, I think a lot of people this is new to a lot of people, and I think a lot of people are asking themselves a way to question, wait, wait a minute, is it going to be? Is it gonna be a bitcoin that's the cryptocurrency that sticks? Is it gonna be one of the all coins? Where do

you fall on that debate? I try not to follow anywhere on that debate, and you know, I the way I view it is that it's the customers that determine the value and the coins that are valuable to them. Our job is the bank is the safe keeper, the custodian. Uh. We follow their instructions. And these are things that banks have done for centuries for customers, and we believe that national banks are uniquely positioned to be able to do.

And and you know, as people are learning about this um there are certainly opinions that people have in terms of which coin may be a greater store of value, which coins are going to be more likely to to help facilitate payments or transfer or or those type of things. And then like every market and every asset, there's always speculators who are coming in and trying to understand and take advantage for certain market dynamics to be able to have a quick problem. Brad's good. Now we're gonna have

to leave it there. Brad is CEO at Vast Bank, joins us on the phone from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Vast Bank the first bank in the country to offer crypto banking. Brad, thank you so much for taking the time