BBG: Signature Bank closure deals another blow to crypto industry

BLOOMBERG reports:

The closure of Signature Bank, a lender that counted a number of crypto companies as customers, marks another major setback for digital assets as the industry becomes ever more cut off from the banking system.

The Treasury Department said Signature Bank was closed by New York state regulators Sunday and that depositors will have access to their money Monday.

The shutdown comes soon after the twin collapses of Silvergate Capital Corp. and Silicon Valley Bank. All the banks were, at least at one point, counted among the US’s most crypto-friendly financial institutions.

Signature had begun a pull back from digital assets in the wake of the blowup of the FTX exchange but still had $16.5 billion in crypto-related client deposits as of March 8. Signature and Silvergate also enabled fast payments between customers like hedge funds and exchanges, supporting digital-asset liquidity.

Coinbase Global Inc., the US’s biggest crypto exchange, said on Friday night that it had a $240 million balance at the bank. Paxos Global, which had previously partnered with Binance on the BUSD stablecoin, said it had $250 million at Signature. In the tweet, Paxos said it “holds private deposit insurance well in excess of our cash balance and FDIC per-account limits.”

To read the full post, please click here.