Dive Brief:

• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) sent cease-and-desist letters to five companies Friday, claiming the firms made false and misleading crypto-related claims about deposit insurance.
• The companies — FTX US, Cryptonews.com, Cryptosec.info, SmartAsset.com and FDICCrypto.com — falsely suggested on their websites and social media accounts that certain crypto-related products are FDIC-insured or that stocks held in brokerage accounts are FDIC-insured.
• The letters follow a similar notice the regulator sent to Voyager Digital last month. That cease-and-desist order demanded the bankrupt crypto platform stop making inaccurate claims that customer-held crypto assets were protected by the government.

Dive Insight:

In its letter to the crypto exchange FTX US, which is owned by billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, the FDIC said a now-deleted tweet from FTX President Brett Harrison falsely stated that FTX and the funds invested by users are insured by the regulator.

Harrison’s tweet, published July 20, stated “[d]irect deposits from employers to FTX US are stored in individually FDIC-insured bank accounts in the users’ names,” according to the FDIC.

Harrison, responding to the FDIC letter on Twitter, said FTX “really didn’t mean to mislead anyone.”

“[W]e didn’t suggest that FTX US itself, or that crypto/non-fiat assets, benefit from FDIC insurance,” he wrote. “I hope this provides clarity on our intentions. Happy to work directly with the FDIC on these important...

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