Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder and CEO of New York-based cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, has accused US regulators of double standards in their handling of the First Republic Bank crisis.
According to Winkelvoss, if First Republic had been a “cryptocurrency bank,” it would have been “assassinated weeks ago.” Notably, First Republic initially began experiencing balance sheet "structural challenges" when Silicon Valley investment banks and Sil vergate Bank were shut down or ceased operations by federal regulators.
Winklevoss' claims are in line with a series of recent letters written by three Republican members of the US House Financial Services Committee seeking to seek more information on possible coordinated action against cryptocurrency companies operating on US soil.
According to CNBC's April 26 report, First Republic's advisors will now seek to coax the larger US banking institutions -- which have lent more than $30 billion to the troubled company -- into more financial aid. , because the government refused to accept the bank into receivership. Silvergate and Silicon Valley Bank were brought into government administration on March 8 and March 10 respectively.
Advisers to First Republic reportedly said the current private market solution to the company's liquidity problems would keep the bank afloat. However, a government takeover is known as a "closed bank" scenario. Fox News senior correspondent Charles Gasparino told his 160,000 Twitter followers on April 26 that the "private bailout" was pushed by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who didn't want to use government Funds bail out savers as they partner with Silvergate and Silicon Valley Bank. On April 24, First Republic slumped, with the troubled company reporting on its first-quarter earnings call that total deposits had plummeted by more than $100 billion. The company said it would "explore strategic options" to strengthen its financial position as soon as possible.
Since then, shares of First Republic have plummeted more than 64%, from $16.14 to $5.68 at the time of writing. The collapse of First Republic Bank is believed to provide a tailwind for investing in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as investors increasingly distr ust central banking institutions .
At the time of writing, Bitcoin, It is trading at $29,279, up 7% over the past seven days, according to data from Cointelegraph Price Index.
