NEW YORK—In the wake of the collapse of at least one U.S. banks as a result of its crypto investments, many cryptocurrency firms in the U.S. are now seeking bank accounts offshore, according to a new report.
The failure of Signature Bank in New York has largely been attributed to its dealings in cryptocurrency.
Sygnum in Switzerland and Bank Frick in Lichtenstein told CoinDesk they have seen an increase in requests to open accounts in the past few days from various jurisdictions - including the U.S. Meanwhile, Swiss bank SEBA said it has already started onboarding crypto clients that have recently shown interest.
On the retail side, Yahoo Finance reported Gibraltar's Xapo Bank has also seen increased demand for new accounts in the wake of the bank failures in the U.S. and is adding GBP payment services with USDC options likely starting later this week.
Additional Banks
According to the Yahoo Finance report, industry sources have also pointed to FV Bank in Puerto Rico, Jewel Bank in Bermuda, and Tether and FTX-tied Deltec in the Bahamas, as options for U.S. dollar-based banking. A list sent out to some companies in the Digital Currency Group umbrella (which includes CoinDesk) also identified EQIBank in Dominica. These banks didn’t respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment, Yahoo Finance said.