DeFi News Today TheBitTimes.com

While Farmington State Bank — which was doing business as Moonstone — sold off its assets to the Bank of Eastern Oregon and wound down in August of this year, the company that had a controlling interest in the small Washington state-based bank, FBH, also seems to be calling it quits. FBH was founded in 2020 by Jean Chalopin — the creator of Inspector Gadget and CEO and chairman of Deltec Bank and Tr US t in The Bahamas — seemingly for the sole purpose of purchasing Farmington State Bank. The mission statement and name of the bank were changed shortly after purchase to ‘Moonstone’ in order to represent its customer demographic shift: cryptocurrency companies (to the moon) and marijuana companies (stoned). End of Moonstone, end of FBH Unfortunately for Chalopin, one of the investors he sought out to buy equity in Moonstone was Sam Bankman-Fried, who poured $11.5 million into the bank for 9.9% ownership . The investment valued the third-smallest ba...

A wealth firm founded by former Credit Suisse banker Francis Menassa has been forced to close its doors after a series of bad investments — including a number involving crypto — left him deep in debt. As reported by Bloomberg, the JAR Capital founder also poured money into leisure assets and a failed attempt to buy a bank. In all, his bad investments left JAR’s holding company, JAR Financial Management, owing $11 million to creditors. The company’s wealth and asset management divisions previously boasted more than $1 billion in assets.  Among the bad bets that triggered JAR’s downward spiral was a near-$2.5 million investment in London-headquartered crypto trading platform BlockEx. Despite a bright start that saw BlockEx raise $24 million in its 2018 ICO things quickly started to go south and just 12 months later, it was forced to lay off staff. Menassa subsequently struggled to offload his share of the firm when crypto prices started to plummet. Read more: Bit...

The total crypto market cap has been ranging sideways, but Bitcoin derivatives markets indicate pro traders don't expect any major price corrections. For the past 14 days, cryptocurrency markets have been trading within an unusually tight 7.1% range. In other words, investors are unwilling to place new bets until there’s additional regulatory clarity, especially in the United States. The total crypto market capitalization fell by 1% to $1.2 trillion over the seven days ending May 4, primarily as a result of Bitcoin's (BTC) 1.1% price decline, Ether's (BTC) 0.2% loss, and BNB trading down 1.4%. Total crypto market cap in USD, 12-hour. Source: TradingView Notice that the exact same $1.16 trillion to $1.22 trillion total market cap range previously stood for twelve days between March 29 and April 10. The conflicting forces: regulatory uncertainty weighing it down and the banking crisis pushing prices upward are likely the reason for the lack of risk-appetite on both sides. SE...