Blockchain Association files additional FOIA requests on bank closures
More Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking information about recently closed crypto-friendly banks have been filed by cryptocurrency advocacy group Blockchain Association (BA) to two regulators.
On April 14, the association said that in addition to the FOIA requests, it has also submitted Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
The organization is seeking additional information on the de-banking of crypto companies following the seizure of Signature Bank and the failure of Silvergate Bank.
BA said the request to NYDFS was to:
“Seeking to understand if the closure of Signature Bank was a result of the bank’s insolvency or a decision to send an anti-crypto message despite the bank being fully solvent.”
The association also reported that it was investigating whether the Silvergate failure “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 withdrawing a loan made to Silvergate just months earlier.”
In early March, Silvergate’s parent company announced it would “discontinue operations” for the crypto- and technology-focused bank. Its peer Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on March 10 after a bank run, and the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and other agencies closed Signature Bank on March 12.
The association initially sought additional information from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Board of the Federal Reserve System and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) regarding the March 16 de-banking.
On April 16, the Blockchain Association and the DeFi Education Fund filed a lawsuit in a United States District Court regarding the sanctioning of Tornado Cash.
Related: Crypto regulation determined by Congress, not the SEC: Blockchain Association
The Blockchain Association is an advocacy and lobbying group for the crypto sector, with around a hundred members that include industry leaders, investors, companies, organizations and projects.
In 2022, the association spent $1.9 million lobbying the U.S. government, according to campaign finance data firm OpenSecrets.
Cointelegraph contacted the Blockchain Association for further details, but did not immediately receive a response.
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