Albert Forkner, former State Banking Commissioner with the Wyoming Division of Banking, has joined Fortress Blockchain Technologies, a Web 3 infrastructure company that provides custody and management services for cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other types of digital assets.
Forkner has more than 20 years of experience as a bank supervisor in Wyoming and was instrumental in the Special Purpose Depository Institution (SPDI) bank charter, the first framework of its kind for digital assets.
While NFTs and Web 3 are on the menu at Fortress Blockchain Technologies, Forkner's work on Wyoming's SPDI over the past four years proved invaluable, according to Fortress CEO Scott Purcell, who was previously responsible for digital asset innovation at Nevada-based Prime Trust.
As such, Forkner has gained unique insight into crypto custody, not only at the state level, but also how the U.S. as a whole compares to other jurisdictions.
"To find out how custody of digital assets works in Wyoming, we reached out to the U.K.'s FCA [Financial Conduct Authority] and talked to countries like Finland, Switzerland, Abu Dhabi and Bermuda," Forkner said in an interview. "The U.S. is much more complex because it has a dual banking system and multiple regulators for the markets.
Forkner, who will head the new Fortress Trust business, has been quietly working behind the scenes for the past five months to obtain a trust license for Fortress from Nevada regulators, which was finally granted last week.
"I think that's one thing I bring to the table: I have relationships with bank commissioners or superintendents in the state system that I've built over the last decade," he said.
After nearly 25 years as a bank supervisor, it still feels strange to be on the other side of the desk, he added.
"I think what's special about being a regulator is that you don't actually build anything up," Forkner said. "This is a way I can help build a new business.