Evolve Bank & Trust reached a cease-and-desist agreement with the Federal Reserve after the Fed found that the bank had unsafe and unsound practices in some of its fintech partnerships and lacked adequate anti-money laundering controls.
Evolve has been in the spotlight due to the failure of intermediary Synapse Financial Technologies, which resulted in the freezing of many fintech users' accounts. The issue has been compounded as Synapse and Evolve's ledgers, and even some fintech companies like Yotta, disagree on how much funds should be in certain accounts.
Evolve has been an important bank in the crypto ecosystem, serving as the issuer of BlockFi credit cards and providing checking accounts and debit cards for FTX customers.
The recent examiner's report in the FTX bankruptcy court also highlighted that FTX Philanthropy had approximately $10 million in funds in its account at Evolve Bank & Trust. (Protos)