[briHass]

Just to clarify, these depositors specifically exceeded the FDIC deposit insurance limit (250K), right? That isn't a new or unknown rule; either through ignorance or calculated risk, those depositors that exceeded the limit took a chance.

I don't disagree that something should be done in the future to prevent this, but when you gamble, sometime you lose.

[Ekaros]

Chose to exceed that and also not diversify at the same time. In my mind they have only themselves to blame. They could have gotten one or two more accounts if they are legitimate businesses.

[popol12]

What if you have 3 billions to deposit, like Circle ? Open 1200 accounts in 1200 different banks ?

[oarabbus_]

Let's not act like Circle's options were either to put 3 billion in one bank, or open 1200 accounts at 1200 banks.

-Purchase high-limit cash insurance from a Reinsurer like Lloyds of London or Berkshire Hathaway up to their underwriting limit, perhaps $100M. Do this across 4-5 different banks with 4-5 different reinsurers.

-Put the remaining $2-2.5B into mixed US Treasuries of varying maturities

[dlubarov]

They did already have 77% of the collateral in short-term T-bills, and the 23% in cash was spread out across multiple banks. They held $3.3bn at SVB, but that's out of $42bn total.

[oarabbus_]

So then it sounds like they probably had 10-15 banks (entirely reasonable for them to be expected to open this many accounts at unique banks, given their business model) which is a far cry from the 1200 OP complained about.

If your entire business model revolves around moving multiple billions of dollars via an asset-backed stablecoin model, it's reasonable to expect you to have dozens of bank accounts, in at least 3 time zones, and likely more.

I don't know why people (not saying you specifically) seem to have this expectation any entity should be able to deposit billions of dollars risk-free at a single institution.

Ironically it's often the same people who can intuitively grasp why to hold your crypto across multiple wallets, who cannot fathom that infinite $ cannot be deposited at a single bank, without risk.

If you're leaving 7 to 9+ figures in a single account, then either buy custom insurance, or only do business with banks which offer excess insurance.

[dlubarov]

I'm not sure any private insurance exists that can cover a $42m deposit?

[Ekaros]

If you have 3 billion deposits, why not have let's say 3 different accounts with billion each? They don't cost that much money. And then even if one bank has system failure preventing transactions, you could have two others working. Or even some reasonable amount like one with each top 10 in users. With some amount of money in each allowing customers even better interaction.

[isignal]

Just buy us treasuries. There is no rule that you have to have cash at a bank.

[dlubarov]

They did have ~77% of collateral in T-bills. I do wonder why that wasn't even higher though.

[aaomidi]

Open 4 banks and you’ll lose at most 25%?

Use treasures bills if you’re that concerned.

[dlubarov]

They did use mostly T-bills, and spread out the cash over 6 banks - that's why it's "only" $3.3bn out of $42bn.

[aaomidi]

I mean then you accept that banks aren’t risk free? I’m not sure why people have been under the assumption they are.

[CyanBird]

You can buy specific insurance in case of bank defaults. That's what large businesses do on the regular, it is not a new or strange thing

People here simply decided to not inform themselves or seek appropriate assistance and therefore got bitten

[downvotetruth]

You want to play at a risky bank, you get to pay for risky insurance.

[muzz]

Is your goal to eliminate risk, or to mitigate it?

If they had deposited that 3B in, say two banks rather than one, they'd have 1.5B in that other bank

[ZachPruckowski]

They actually had like $12B split across 5 or 6 banks. But yeah, they definitely could've split it better. "No more than $1B per bank" seems like an easy rule, and even maxing at $500M could be doable.

[subsistence234]

two accounts at two different banks already decreases the expected loss by 45% or so. (not 50%, because of contagion)

[scarface74]

Were they gambling by putting their money in an FDIC insured bank?

How do you even run a payroll system if your money is spread out between a dozen banks?

[aaomidi]

You use the various services that exist to do this? Or you just have enough money in your payroll source account?