In recent weeks, the crypto-friendly bank has reduced its involvement in digital asset markets, as part of the ongoing fallout from recent crypto sector debacles.
According to a statement by exchange giant Binance, Signature Bank will not handle transactions of less than $100,000 for crypto exchange users.
Binance stated in an email to CoinDesk that Signature informed the business that it “would no longer support “any of its crypto exchange customers with buying and selling sums of less than 100,000 USD as of February 1, 2023,” and that this would apply to “all Signature’s crypto exchange clients.”
As a result, “certain individual users” may be unable to use SWIFT bank transfers to buy or sell digital assets “with/for USD” in modest sums.
Binance stated that Signature Bank served 0.01% of its average monthly users and that it was “currently attempting to find a new solution.”
Users could continue to use their accounts, including “buying and selling crypto using credit or debit cards, utilising one of the other fiat currencies supported by Binance,” according to the business.
SWIFT is a global messaging network that enables financial services organisations to swiftly and securely send and receive money transfer orders and other information.
Signature and other financial services organisations have been reducing their involvement in crypto markets in recent weeks, as part of the ongoing repercussions from the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and other industry calamities.
Signature, one of Wall Street’s most crypto-friendly banks, announced in December that it will reduce its deposits connected to cryptocurrency by $8 billion to $10 billion.
As of September 2022, the crypto business accounted for about a quarter of the New York-based bank’s total deposits of $103 billion, or roughly 23.5%. However, given recent “problems” in the industry, Signature CEO DePaolo stated at a Goldman Sachs-hosted conference in New York that Signature will lower that share to around 20% and maybe under 15% in the future.
Although FTX was a client of the bank, its deposits with Signature amounted to less than 0.1% of the bank’s total deposits. Nonetheless, the relationship between the two caused Signature’s stock to fall over 20% in November.
