Here are the crypto firms denied exposure to troubled US banks
Amidst the ongoing US banking crisis, a large number of major cryptocurrency firms have denied exposure to defunct US banks such as Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
As potential implications of the SVB crisis for the crypto market continue to unfold, Cointelegraph highlighted several major crypto firms that have declared themselves unaffected by the issues so far.
Tether
Tether, the operator of the eponymous USD-pegged stablecoin, USDT (USDT), was one of the first companies to deny exposure to SVB and other troubled US banks in mid-March.
On March 12, Tether Chief Technology Officer Paolo Ardoino took to Twitter to announce that the stablecoin company has zero exposure to Signature Bank. The tweet came shortly after Signature officially ceased operations on the same day.
Arduino earlier so that Tether had no exposure to SVB on March 10. The CTO posted a similar tweet about Silvergate, declares that Tether had “no exposure” to the bank on March 2.
Tether USDT is the largest stablecoin by market cap, with a market cap of $73 billion at the time of writing. Its biggest rival, USD Coin (USDC), briefly lost its 1:1 peg to the USD after issuer Circle was unable to withdraw $3.3 billion from SVB.
Crypto.com, Gemini, BitMEX
Kris Marszalek, CEO of major cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com, made similar statements that the company is not affected by the ongoing problems in US banking.
In subsequent tweets on March 10 and March 12, Marszalek declared that Crypto.com had zero exposure to Signature, Silvergate and SVB.
Other major exchanges, including Gemini and BitMEX, have also denied any exposure to the dissolved US banks.
Despite having a partnership with Signature, the Winklevoss brothers-founded Gemini exchange has zero client funds and zero Gemini dollar (GUSD) funds in the bank, the firm announced on March 13.
Gemini emphasized that all of the platform’s client US dollars, as well as GUSD reserves, are held in banks such as JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and State Street Bank.
BitMEX exchange also took to Twitter on March 13th announce that the company had “no direct exposure” to Silvergate, SVB or Signature. “All user funds continue to be safe and accessible 24/7/365,” BitMEX added.
Related: CEO of Ripple ensures ‘strong financial position’ despite SVB collapse
Exchanges such as Binance and Kraken have partially denied exposure to the dissolved banks, with Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao states that Binance has no assets with Silvergate and former Kraken CEO denying exposure to SVB.
Argo Blockchain
Bitcoin mining company Argo Blockchain issued a statement on March 13, declaring that the company has no direct or indirect exposure to SVB and Silvergate Bank.
However, one of Argo’s subsidiaries has a “portion of its working capital in cash deposits” with Signature, the company said. “These deposits are safe and are not at risk,” Argo noted, referring to a decision by the US Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to bail out customer deposits at the bank.
A number of other firms, including Animoca, Abra and Alchemy Pay have in part denied exposure to the troubled US banks, stating that they had no assets in SBV and Silvergate.
Some companies like crypto depositories BitGo declared to have no assets at SVB, while being “not affected” by problems at Silvergate, USDC and Signature Bank.
