WASHINGTON — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Federal Reserve have told the crypto firm Voyager Digital to immediately cease and desist from making misleading statements about the availability of deposit insurance.
Voyager’s bankruptcy earlier this month sent some customers scrambling to understand what would happen to their noncryptocurrency deposits held with the company. USD deposits at Voyager were held at Metropolitan Commercial Bank, which means that deposits were not insured against the failure of Voyager itself, despite what the regulators say was misleading marketing.
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In a letter to the company, the FDIC and the Fed demanded that Voyager take down any misleading statements related to FDIC insurance and take immediate corrective action to address “false” statements.
“These representations are false and misleading and, based on the information we have to date, it appears that the representations likely misled and were relied upon by customers who placed their funds with Voyager and do not have immediate access to their funds,” the agencies said.
The letter requires that Voyager remove any statements that suggest “expressly or implicitly” that Voyager is insured by the FDIC, that those who invested with Voyager would receive FDIC insurance without reference to the Metropolitan Commercial Bank account or that the FDIC would insure against the failure of Voyager, not the bank.
The letter also tells Voyager to write to the FDIC and the Fed detailing the efforts that the company took to comply with the agencies’ request within two days. If Voyager believes that its representations of deposit insurance are accurate, the letter says, it should write to the agencies with information and documentation that support their accuracy.
There could be further action taken on the matter, regulators suggested.
“Your prompt response to the above does not preclude us from taking any further action, as appropriate, with respect to the foregoing or any other violations of law or regulation, or unsafe or unsound banking practice,” according to the letter.
Voyager did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this article.
