'Ludicrous' idea that Signature Bank's collapse was connected to crypto, says NYDFS head

Adrienne Harris, superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, oregon NYDFS, has reportedly said the closure of the crypto-friendly Signature Bank successful March had thing to bash with vulnerability to integer assets.

According to an April 5 study from The Wall Street Journal, Harris made the remarks astatine the Chainalysis Links league successful New York City. She reportedly described the events starring up to the nonaccomplishment of Signature arsenic a “new-fashioned slope run”, dismissing immoderate narration to crypto vulnerability arsenic “ludicrous.”

Harris besides reportedly pushed backmost against the thought that the United States authorities was actively moving to bounds definite industries’ entree to U.S. banking services successful what galore person dubbed ‘Operation Choke Point 2.0’. The archetypal Operation Choke Point, implemented by the U.S. Department of Justice from 2013 to 2017, targeted banks suspected to person vulnerability to companies perchance progressive successful fraud oregon wealth laundering.

Earlier contiguous #NYDFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris joined CSO and co-founder @jony_levin to sermon the aboriginal of integer plus oversight and important developments successful planetary fiscal regularisation astatine @chainalysis #Links23 pic.twitter.com/7ie6HnDVRr

The NYDFS took power of Signature Bank connected March 12, claiming it was protecting the U.S. system from “system risk.” The slope was the latest nonaccomplishment pursuing the illness of the crypto-friendly Silvergate Bank and Silicon Valley Bank.

Related: Tether ‘unequivocally reiterates’ nary vulnerability to Signature Bank

Former House of Representatives subordinate and Signature committee subordinate Barney Frank said determination had been nary issue with the bank’s solvency astatine the clip of the seizure, suggesting regulators were making a “very beardown anti-crypto message.” Some lawmakers including Colorado Senator Michael Bennet said Signature did not make “prudentially sound” decisions by associating with crypto firms.

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