How can a crypto company think about its banking risks?

Question 1: how much of the cash is insured?

The FDIC's standard limit is $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category.⁵ A company's deposits fall in one category, for corporations, partnerships and unincorporated associations.^5,1

Three details matter for a company:¹

• All of a company's deposits at the same bank are added together and insured up to $250,000.¹
• Opening a second account at the same bank for a different purpose, such as a reserve account, doesn't add cover.¹
• The company's deposits are insured separately from its owners' personal deposits.¹

The limit applies per insured bank, so deposits at a second FDIC-insured bank are counted separately.⁵ Deposit insurance only covers deposits. It does not cover crypto assets, and it does not cover a firm that is not an FDIC-insured bank going bust.⁵ If the FDIC can't find a buyer for a failed bank, it pays insured depositors directly. It says these payments usually begin within a few days.¹

Question 2: what if one bank stops paying out?

The 2023 failures were fast. SVB lost more than $40 billion of deposits in one day.² Signature lost a fifth of its deposits in hours.⁶ Circle could not get at $3.3 billion of reserves held at SVB over a weekend, until the funds were made available on Monday 13 March.^7,8

The reviews pointed to concentration as a weakness. The Fed's review named SVB's "highly concentrated business model".² This lesson borrows that idea for depositors: if one bank holds all of a company's cash, that bank is a single point of failure. One simple test is how many days the company could keep paying its bills from its other accounts.

Question 3: what will a bank ask?

US banks must understand the nature and purpose of a customer relationship and keep monitoring accounts.³ For a company customer, they must identify its beneficial owners:¹⁰

• Each person who owns, directly or indirectly, 25% or more of the company.¹⁰
• One person with significant responsibility to control or manage it, such as a chief executive or chief financial officer.¹⁰

Since a FinCEN order in February 2026, a bank must do this when a company first opens an account with it, when it has reason to doubt the information, and as its own risk-based procedures require. It no longer has to repeat it for every new account.¹¹

In 2023, the US regulators also suggested that banks check what crypto firms tell their own customers about deposit accounts, because inaccurate claims could lead to rapid outflows.¹² That statement was withdrawn in 2025, but it shows the kind of question a bank may ask.¹³

Question 4: what happens when money moves?

• Into an exchange. Exchanges set their own deposit limits and holds. Kraken, for example, says limits depend on your verification level, and card and some ACH deposits trigger a withdrawal hold of 72 hours (7 days for ACH through Plaid).¹⁴
• Between providers. Under the Travel Rule, the sending provider passes on details about the sender and receiver.^15,16
• To your own wallet. Under the EU rule, a provider sending more than EUR 1,000 to a self-hosted address must check whether its customer owns or controls it.⁴
• At weekends. Fedwire's business days are Monday to Friday (Monday's opens at 9 p.m. Eastern on Sunday).¹⁷