Horizen (zen) 
Binance head Richard Teng has confirmed that the exchange is in “close touch” with its customers regarding the bankruptcy of FlowBank, which stored the exchange’s clients’ trading collateral.
The cryptocurrency exchange Binance appears unaffected by FlowBank’s bankruptcy, following the Swiss regulator’s announcement on June 13 that the bank had “significantly and seriously breached” its minimum capital requirements.
In an interview, Binance chief executive Richard Teng reassured that the exchange is cooperating with its customers regarding the bankruptcy, noting that “very little” assets were held at FlowBank.
“There’s very little assets on FlowBank on the tripartite arrangement front.”
Launched in 2020, FlowBank quickly became a hub for crypto businesses. It partnered with Binance in an arrangement allowing the exchange’s clients to keep their trading collateral at the bank rather than on the crypto platform. The Geneva-based bank also had ties to the TrueUSD stablecoin and crypto asset manager CoinShares.
In a post on June 14, TrueUSD noted it had closed its bank account at FlowBank in April this year, adding it has no exposure to the bankrupt entity.
“TUSD has closed its bank account at FlowBank since April 2024 and currently has no reserve exposure or banking relationship with FlowBank.”
CoinShares mentioned in a blog post that its exposure to the bank as a customer is “immaterial,” with deposits totaling approximately £100,000 (around $127,600). Additionally, CoinShares is an investor in FlowBank, holding nearly 30% of the bank’s shares as of March 2022.
In May 2023, reports indicated that Binance was in discussions to allow some institutional clients to keep their trading collateral at a bank to reduce counterparty risk following the collapse of FTX. It remains unclear whether FlowBank was chosen for this purpose.
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