First Republic to be seized by Feds this week?

Plus Binance bails on Voyager and UK FCA comes a crypto-courting

Author

Nathaniel Whittemore
April 26, 2023

The Breakdown First Five - Wed April 26, 2023

5. As the US Breaks up, the UK makes up

After spending the last two years driving firms offshore, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has decided it wants to work with the Crypto industry in crafting functional regulations. The regulator is now calling to “work together” as Crypto goes from “niche to mainstream.” Having a PM that wants Britain to be a Global Crypto Hub™ and seeing your European neighbors pass sensible regulation will do that, huh?

4. Deloitte is putting together a team

Big 4 accounting firm Deloitte is pivoting to Crypto audits. The firm posted over 300 crypto jobs this week from smart contract auditing to NFT taxation. This is a massive change in direction after the Crypto industry was all but shut out of major accounting services late last year amid scandals around limited proof-of-reserves reports being presented as audits.

3. All is not well in the land of Genesis/DCG

Bankrupt crypto lender Genesis has asked for immediate mediation, explaining that a group of creditors have walked away from a restructuring plan agreed to in February. Genesis says the creditors “reneged and raised all new demands”. With paarent Digital Currency Group facing $630M of inter-company loans coming due in the next few weeks, will they be able to close the deal before time is up?

2. Binance US rage quits Voyager deal

After basically every branch of the US Government objected to the Binance US deal to acquire Voyager Digital, CZ’s US crew has had enough. A 4-month delay was enough to trigger an exit clause leaving Voyager on their own to distribute to creditors. Binance US blamed a “hostile and uncertain regulatory climate” in the US. As for CZ’s view…

1. First Republic on the brink

First Republic bank seems on the edge of collapse. After releasing a dismal first quarter earnings report on Monday, a damning set of desperate actions were leaked to Bloomberg, outlining the steps that would be taken to keep the bank afloat. Fox Business is reporting that insiders expect the bank to be seized by the FDIC this week. Despite the bank runs cooling off, this bank crisis doesn’t appear to be over yet.

Latest Episode: Raoul Pal on The Exponential Age and the Everything Code: AI, Crypto, QE and Beyond

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading!

-NLW