US crypto companies look for banks in Europe

Political scientist Francis Fukuyama rose to fame for writing books about how the geopolitical world would evolve. He recently wrote a very interesting piece about the end of the war in Ukraine and what this would mean for President Putin. Predictions are always a bit of a gamble, and just like Francis, Cryptotips also participates in this art. Fortunately for us, we have doing very well lately (knock on wood of course).

Silvergate and Silicon Valley Bank

For example, two weeks ago, before the banking crisis erupted, we said that a bankruptcy of the Silvergate bank would mean a major problem for US crypto companies. Yesterday, there was the first major US press coverage admitting that their crypto companies are indeed eyeing Europe for lending and banking from now on.

It may surprise you with all the panic surrounding UBS and Credit Suisse, but it turns out that Switzerland still attracts the most American crypto companies.

In a way, that makes sense since the area around Zug is very popular for innovative crypto companies. It is sometimes called “crypto valley”, analogy to the much more famous “silicon valley” in California.

The Sygnum bank, which is very crypto-friendly, is also located in Zug.

Dominic Castley, chief marketing officer at Sygnum, admitted to seeing a large influx of enquiries.

Over the past weeks as the current banking industry events have unfolded, we have seen a significant increase in onboarding enquiries from various international locations, Dominic said.

An advisor at a private Swiss bank who wished to remain anonymous also claimed:

We have been inundated with requests.

So the bankruptcies of Silvergate and Silicon Valley bank, both of which were very crypto-focused, is actually providing the answer that European politicians had hoped for.

With their MICA regulation, they thought they could attract major crypto players. Thanks to an American banking crisis, this seems to be working out in the short term.