Multiple heads of the top U.S. banks said Wednesday they don’t have any plans to finance cryptocurrency miners.
Congressman Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), a crypto mining critic, asked the heads of three major banks whether they intended to finance crypto mining at a congressional hearing of the House Financial Services Committee.
“I do not believe so,” Citigroup’s CEO Jane Fraser said. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf both said they did not, either.
In April, U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), who leads a subcommittee within the House of Representatives’ Natural Resources Committee, recruited almost two dozen Democratic colleagues to urge federal environmental officials to devote further scrutiny to the consequences of cryptocurrency mining.
Raising capital has become difficult for bitcoin miners this year as the price of bitcoin has slumped and energy prices have skyrocketed. Miners have had to get creative, while various companies are attempting to fill the void for miners. Decentralized finance (DeFi) firm Maple Finance, for example, is starting a $300 million lending pool for mid-size bitcoin (BTC) miners across North America and Australia.
Industry participants also expect some mergers & acquisitions as miners grapple with lower crypto prices.
Read more:DeFi Platform Maple Finance Aims to Help Struggling Bitcoin Miners With $300M Lending Pool
