Caitlin Long, Former Wall Street Executive

Biography

Caitlin Long is a 22-year Wall Street veteran with roles at Salomon Brothers, Credit Suisse (Managing Director), and Morgan Stanley (Head of Corporate Strategies). She holds a BA in Political Economy from the University of Wyoming, an MPP, and a JD from Harvard.

During her career on Wall Street, Long advised on the settlement of nearly $40 billion in pension obligations for major corporations including GM, Verizon, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Her expertise in pensions led to her being named to Institutional Investor’s most influential people in pensions.

In 2020, Long founded Custodia Bank, a Wyoming-chartered Special Purpose Depository Institution (SPDI) bank for digital assets. She has been instrumental in Wyoming’s blockchain development, helping to enact 24 blockchain-friendly laws as a gubernatorial appointee. In 2023, she was named American Banker’s Innovators of the Year.

Follow Caitlin on Twitter: @CaitlinLong_

Orange Pill Story

Caitlin discovered Bitcoin in 2012 while serving as a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley. She found Bitcoin through Austrian School economics circles and email groups, but initially kept her interest quiet, worried about potential consequences at her firm. A Morgan Stanley CTO eventually found her through an internal Bitcoin forum, providing some relief in knowing others at the bank shared her interest.

The pivotal moment came in 2017 when Long tried to donate appreciated bitcoin to the University of Wyoming Foundation for a scholarship. She discovered that Wyoming law actually blocked such a donation. This practical problem sparked her mission to fix Wyoming’s blockchain laws. She left Wall Street, returned to Wyoming, and personally lobbied lawmakers during a 20-day legislative session. As she describes it, she “camped out on my own time and dime” having patient one-on-one conversations with legislators to help them understand blockchain technology and its potential benefits to the state.

Notable Quotes

“The people in power in Washington, D.C. today think they have the power to kill Bitcoin, which should give all of us a good laugh. Bitcoin has already died 474 deaths and it still lives.” — Bitcoin Magazine

“U.S. policymakers are going to get what they fear here as a result of pushing Bitcoin services into the proverbial shadows.” — NASDAQ

“The most important aspect of Bitcoin is that no one controls it.” — CNBC, August 2024

“A fool and his leveraged Bitcoin are soon parted!” — Bitcoin 2021 Conference

“Rehypothecation creates multiple owners of the same underlying asset—for bitcoin it creates off-chain claims to real bitcoins.” — Twitter (@CaitlinLong_)

“The ‘R’ and ‘C’ words, rehypothecation and commingling, are as antithetical to how Bitcoin works as they are integral to how Wall Street works.” — Caitlin Long Blog

“In the case of bitcoin, if you have your private keys and you haven’t lost them and they haven’t been hacked, then you really own your bitcoin.” — CCN

“Stablecoins are an onramp to bitcoin.” — CNBC, July 2025

“It’s the banks vs crypto industry and crypto is winning.” — CNBC, July 2025

“Bitcoin leaves me with tremendous hopes for the future…it is a chance to re-write wrongs and change history. Thanks to Satoshi we actually have an alternative option.” — Bitstamp

“Negative interest rates are purely a construct of the artificiality of the monetary system. There is going to be a major bond crash.” — What Bitcoin Did Podcast

Involvement with Bitcoin

Wyoming Blockchain Legislation (2017-2019): Caitlin helped enact 24 blockchain-friendly laws in Wyoming and was instrumental in creating the Special Purpose Depository Institution (SPDI) bank charter, which provides banks with legal clarity to serve the crypto industry.

Custodia Bank (2020-present): She founded Custodia Bank, a Wyoming-chartered bank specifically designed for crypto custody and services. The bank applied for a Federal Reserve master account to operate within the traditional banking system.

Federal Reserve Battle: Custodia Bank sued the Federal Reserve in 2022 for what Long characterized as an unlawful delay in processing their master account application. The Fed denied the application in January 2023, and the case remains under appeal.

Public Appearances: Long participated in the Bitcoin 2021 Conference on a panel discussing leverage and risk in crypto markets alongside industry figures like Sam Bankman-Fried.

Bitcoin Philosophy: Caitlin is a Bitcoin maximalist who advocates for a 20-year adoption timeline for Bitcoin. She is a vocal advocate against fractional reserve banking practices applied to Bitcoin and the practice of rehypothecation, which she sees as fundamentally contrary to Bitcoin’s design principles.

Board Positions: She serves on the boards of Cipher Mining Technologies and Symbiont (formerly serving as Chairman).

Media and Resources

To learn more about Caitlin Long’s work and philosophy, explore these resources:

Notable Bitcoin Tweets

Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Custodia Bank, is one of the most important advocates for bringing Bitcoin into the regulated banking system. A Wall Street veteran with 22 years of corporate finance experience, she became a Bitcoin evangelist in 2012 and almost single-handedly turned Wyoming into the most crypto-friendly state in America.

“The people in power in Washington think they have the power to kill Bitcoin, which should give all of us a good laugh. Bitcoin has already died 474 deaths and it still lives. When organizations make decisions out of fear, they tend to get exactly what they feared.”

— @CaitlinLong_

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“Bitcoin is the soundest money ever created by humanity. It’s harder than gold, more portable than cash, and more verifiable than anything that came before it.”

— @CaitlinLong_

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“Policymakers are going to get what they fear. By pushing Bitcoin into the shadows, they will face a stronger, more globally-distributed, and therefore more resilient Bitcoin network.”

— @CaitlinLong_

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