I just reviewed the history of Lead Bank, and honestly, it's quite interesting how a century-old community bank managed to reinvent itself in the midst of the crypto era.

It all started with Garden City Bank back in 1928 in Missouri, survived the Great Depression, changed owners several times, but remained essentially a traditional bank. The turning point came in 2022 when Jackie Reses, an important figure on Wall Street with experience at Goldman Sachs, Yahoo, and Square, decided to buy the bank. It wasn't a whim: Reses was frustrated watching the fintech sector struggle to advance within the limitations of traditional banking, so she chose the most direct path: buy a bank directly.

What’s interesting is that Reses assembled a team in Silicon Valley and literally rebuilt the technological infrastructure from scratch. They discarded all that legacy technology carried by old banks, implemented real-time accounting systems using AWS and Snowflake, and eliminated dependence on middleware. This turned out to be a masterstroke because when Synapse went bankrupt in 2024 and dragged down several BaaS providers, Lead Bank was completely unscathed. While others sank, they gained new clients like Revolut and Ramp.

In 2024, they completed a $70 million Series B round with a valuation of $1.47 billion. Today, Lead Bank has positioned itself as that key bridge between crypto and traditional finance. They are one of the banks supporting USDC liquidation on Solana for Visa, offering 24/7 on-ramp and off-ramp services for crypto companies that comply with regulations, mapping fiat money directly to on-chain addresses.

Their model is smart: low-cost commercial deposits, growth driven by non-interest income like transaction fees. Lead Bank redefined what a bank looks like in the 21st century, especially one that understands the crypto ecosystem. That’s what happens when you take a centennial institution and equip it with a startup mindset.