Chicago-based Burling Bank, which has been serving stock traders for over 30 years, and Houston-based digital asset firm LevelField Financial have agreed to merge.
According to media reports, upon completion of the transaction, LevelField will position itself as a traditional bank that issues loans and deposits in digital currencies. The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal, but it became known that LevelField could acquire Burling for a price of 2.6 times the bank’s book value, which as of December 31, 2022 was $200 million.
By acquiring Burling, LevelField intends to expand its presence at the national level and enter the financial services market not only as a traditional bank offering typical retail banking services, but also providing services to professional traders and servicing cryptocurrency deposits.
LevelField founder and CEO Gene Grant said that providing banking services to traders will remain a core business, with crypto transactions accounting for no more than half of the bank’s services. His team does not intend to “take on potential crypto risks” and will require borrowers to back their loans not only with the value of crypto assets, but also with other traditional assets.
Earlier it became known that the US Federal Reserve rejected Custodia Bank’s application for membership in the system and the opening of a master account, which could give the financial institution the opportunity to conduct direct transactions with other credit institutions in the country through the reserves of the Central Bank.
