Old Glory Bank, a crypto-friendly lender with ties to prominent right-wing political figures, will become publicly traded through a deal with blank-check company Digital Asset Acquisition Corp.
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Old Glory has deep roots in Oklahoma as a traditional lender, but re-branded as a digital bank in 2022 and touts its intention to embed cryptocurrency into loans, deposits and investment offerings.
“We intend for Old Glory Bank to be the first chartered bank to fully integrate crypto into daily banking,” Michael Staw, Old Glory’s co-founder and chief innovation officer, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Today, it’s too confusing, slow, and difficult for regular Americans to move money from a bank account to the blockchain.”
Old Glory is one of several firms associated with crypto that have become regulated banks, with most of the recent companies doing so mainly through applications for trust charters. Last month, five other crypto firms including Circle Internet Group Inc. and Ripple received conditional approvals from a key bank regulator for those licenses.
The transaction with Digital Asset Acquisition Corp. involves that special acquisition purpose company — or SPAC — contributing $176 million to the deal, with another private investment of at least $50 million for closing. It will value Old Glory at $250 million. The new company will be called OGB Financial Co., listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker OGB.
Old Glory’s press release is full of attestations from executives and board members who are more familiar from their stints in the first Trump administration or Republican media.
Larry Elder, another co-founder who also hosts a conservative radio show, said Old Glory proudly supports “America’s important industries like crypto, firearms, oil and gas, and agriculture” and criticized former President Joe Biden.
Others involved with the bank include Ben Carson, who was secretary of Housing and Urban Development during President Donald Trump’s first term, and Sean Spicer, who was Trump’s press secretary before becoming a television host. Another co-founder is country music singer John Rich.