Moonstone Bank to Exit Crypto Space

Moonstone Bank, a rural bank in the state of Washington that was given an estimated $11.5 million investment by Alameda Research, the sister firm of FTX, has announced that it will withdraw from the cryptocurrency industry and return to its “original objective” as a community bank. The investment was made by FTX. Moonstone Bank is a rural bank. In a statement that was made public on January 18, the bank said that the reason for the change in strategy was “recent developments in the crypto assets market and the evolving legal environment surrounding crypto asset firms.” This information was included in the statement. It was recently revealed by the financial institution that it would no longer operate under the moniker Moonstone Bank as part of an effort to “return to its roots.” It will instead be rebranding itself and re-adopting the name Farmington State Bank, which has been well-known in the community that surrounds it for the last 135 years.

Customers of local banks should not anticipate any interruptions in service as a consequence of the changeover, as the bank says that the change is likely to become effective within the next few weeks.

It is general knowledge that the bank’s decision to re-strategize and rebrand itself may be tied to the collapse of FTX, despite the fact that the bank did not directly acknowledge the failure of FTX as a reason in its decision to make these changes.

Moonstone Bank was reportedly acquired by Jean Chalopin in the year 2020. Chalopin lives in the Bahamas and acts as the chairman of Deltec, which is another financial partner of FTX. Chalopin is also said to have owned the bank.

It was reported in January 2022 that Chalopin had been successful in securing an investment of $11.5 million from Alameda Research in order to transform Moonstone into a cryptocurrency-focused financial services organisation. The investment had been sought after by Chalopin in order to turn Moonstone into a cryptocurrency-focused financial services organisation. It would seem that the Farmington State Bank is one among the several financial entities that have been harmed as a result of the unexpected decline of FTX.