The Blockchain Association, a cryptocurrency advocacy group, has submitted further Freedom of Information Act FOIA requests.
The requests were made to regulators in its bid for more information on recent de-banking of crypto-friendly banks. On April 14, the group announced that it had filed FIOA requests to the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the New York Department of Financial Services.
This came after its initial FOIA request filed to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The organization is seeking further information on the de-banking of crypto companies following the seizure of Signature Bank and the failure of Silvergate Bank.
The association said that its request to the NYDFS is to “seek to understand whether the closure of Signature Bank was the result of the bank’s insolvency or a decision to send an anti-crypto message despite the bank being fully solvent.”
It also reported that it was investigating whether the failure of Silvergate “was the result of a politically-motivated decision by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, which is overseen by the FHFA, to take the extraordinary and unusual action of pulling a loan made to Silvergate only months earlier.”
Silvergate Bank’s parent company had announced that it would “wind down operations” for the crypto and tech-focused bank in early March. Its peer, Silicon Valley Bank, collapsed on March 10 following a bank run. The Treasury, Federal Reserve, and other agencies closed Signature Bank on March 12.
The Blockchain Association is an advocacy and lobbying group for the crypto sector, comprising around a hundred members including industry executives, investors, companies, organizations, and projects. The association spent $1.9 million lobbying the US government in 2022, according to campaign finance data firm OpenSecrets.
In addition to the FOIA requests, on April 16, the Blockchain Association and the DeFi Education Fund filed a brief in a United States District Court over the sanctioning of Tornado Cash, a privacy-focused decentralized exchange (DEX) platform.
The BA’s pursuit of transparency in the de-banking of crypto-friendly banks comes amid increasing regulatory scrutiny on cryptocurrencies and their exchanges in recent months.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken aim at a number of crypto companies, including Ripple, LBRY, and Coinbase, over alleged violations.
The SEC has also been reviewing a proposed redefinition of an “exchange” to bring certain brokers under additional regulatory scrutiny, drawing criticism from crypto advocacy groups who suggest it is an overreach of the SEC’s authority that could jeopardize participation in the space.
Blockchain Association FOIA
The debate surrounding regulatory actions in the crypto space highlights differing opinions on how best to regulate the industry.Some argue that stricter regulation is necessary to prevent financial crimes such as money laundering and terrorist financing, while others believe that heavy-handed regulation could stifle innovation and growth in the sector. The Blockchain Association’s FOIA requests are part of its efforts to gain clarity and transparency on regulatory actions affecting the crypto sector.