Metropolitan Commercial Bank announced the complete abandonment of crypto projects

Metropolitan Commercial Bank (MCB) said it serves four active institutional clients related to cryptocurrency projects, which account for no more than 1.5% of total income and about 6% of the bank holding's total deposits. Against the background of these indicators, the bank decided to stop supporting this line of business. The company explained that they do not expect any negative financial effect from the refusal to develop the cryptocurrency direction. “We decided to abandon cryptocurrencies and not develop this direction. The decision follows a thorough analysis that provided a strategic assessment and business case for MCB’s continued involvement in crypto projects.. The decision takes into account the latest developments in the industry, as well as significant changes in the regulatory environment regarding the participation of banks in the business related to crypto assets,” explained Mark R, President and CEO of MCB. DeFazio (Mark R. DeFazio). Metropolitan was one of several US commercial banks that openly worked with companies from the crypto industry.. His clients included the Bitpay processing service, the Crypto.com platform, the Coinbase exchange, and the Voyager crypto broker.. However, despite the friendly position of the bankers, the cryptocurrency direction showed increasingly poor results.. For example, back in the second quarter of 2018, the volume of deposits of cryptocurrency companies on Metropolitan's balance sheet fell to $300 million. The other day, ARK Fintech investment fund announced the sale of almost its entire reserve in shares of Silvergate Capital after the bank, focused on operations with crypto assets, reported that deposits of customers decreased almost three times, from $11.9 billion to $3.8 billion. The bank was forced to sell the securities and related derivatives for a loss of $718 million.