Crypto Firm FTX’s Ownership of a U.S. Bank Raises Questions
Banking veterans say it’s hard to believe that regulators would have knowingly allowed FTX to gain control of a U.S. bank.
“The fact that an offshore hedge fund that was basically a crypto firm was buying a stake in a tiny bank for multiples of its stated book value should have raised massive red flags for the F.D.I.C., state regulators and the Federal Reserve,” said Camden Fine, a bank industry consultant who used to head the Independent Community Bankers of America. “It’s just astonishing that all of this got approved.”