July 1, 2019
Plenty of attention and scrutiny had already been paid to Jeffrey Berns and Blockchains before the 56-year-old attorney announced ambitious plans last year to construct a blockchain-focused master planned community and e-sports arena on a chunk of Nevada desert nearly the size of Reno.
But the latest move by the enigmatic company and Berns is considerably more dull: purchasing a small community bank in a $28 million sale that becomes official on Monday.
Though it may be less exciting than the techno-future vision heavily promoted by the company, Berns (who will own the bank through a separate holding company and not through Blockchains) said the acquisition of the Las Vegas-based Kirkwood Bank of Nevada is a small but critical step in helping the nascent company achieve its wildly ambitious goals.
“Purchasing the bank was basically security for me to make sure that Blockchains and myself had access to the financial system,” he said in an interview with The Nevada Independent. “But secondarily, it’s to create an environment where the blockchain ecosystem, the legitimate businesses out there who are trying to build projects that are going to empower the individual and better the world, that they have a bank that understands what they’re doing and isn’t fearful.”
