Voyager’s misleading marketing in regulators’ crosshairs

Crypto firm Voyager Digital, which filed for bankruptcy last week, previously told customers that their deposits were FDIC-insured through a partnership with Metropolitan Commercial Bank. However, customer funds are only protected if Metropolitan Bank fails, not if Voyager fails; the FDIC is now investigating Voyager’s false claims.

Why should we care?
Most immediately, how Voyager misled customers through its FDIC marketing scheme will affect consumer confidence in crypto accounts, and will make them more skeptical of accounts that claim to be stable or insured. But, perhaps more importantly, Voyager’s exploitative leveraging of its partnership with Metropolitan Bank will dissuade other banks from entering the crypto space—and Metropolitan Bank has clearly had enough and is already exiting crypto. “Metropolitan Commercial Bank has been reducing our involvement in the cryptocurrency sector in recent years,” the bank said in a statement. “As and when these crypto-related deposits decline, we do not expect a material impact on our earnings or capital.” Crypto companies may have a harder time finding fiat partners in the coming months, and they’ll certainly be subject to greater FDIC scrutiny in the process.