Share this article
Crypto Bank FairX Shuts Down Citing Lack of Funds, Bleak Future
FairX, a crypto bank that planned to run on the Stellar network, ran out of steam.
By John Biggs
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 11:13 a.m. Published Jul 22, 2019, 10:00 a.m.
In a Twitter thread so winding that it should have been a Medium post, the founder of FairX, a so-called crypto bank, announced the company was shutting down. The tweetstorm, posted on July 19, offered a complete rundown of the problems facing a modern crypto-banking solution. The biggest problem? He ran out of cash.
https://twitter.com/fairxio/status/1152310679577059328
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
"Ultimately, our business model was simple: introduce a new, licensed, fully regulated national bank, modeled as a financial market utility, that would work with individuals and banks to create a dematerialized bank deposit, denominated in USD. The bank was Frank Financial," wrote the founder, former CTO of IBM Blockchain Financial Solutions Michael Dowling, apparently without irony.
Further, the Dowling noted that blockchain might not be the best solution for banking. He did, however, wish Facebook and Libra well in their effort to turn things around on the regulatory front. "I really do wish Marcus and his team all the best of luck. I wish Marcus had chosen…ANYONE…other than FB to partner with. I wish he had tried this at PayPal, which has a reputation of actually following the rules to get things done. Pretty sure they will require a bank license," he wrote.
In the end, Dowling said he and his team needed some time to regroup.
https://twitter.com/fairxio/status/1152311349608796160
The company planned to run on the Stellar network, and was to become an "anchor" on Stellar that could take in fiat and crypto and convert them to tokens on the network, according to researcher Gitzalytics.
Dowling noted that neither VCs or crypto investors liked the company. First, he was unable to give preferred shares to early investors because of banking regulations and he also could not create a proper stablecoin without centralization, a bugbear to the crypto whales. In the end, Dowling said, it cost too much fiat to disrupt the banking industry with crypto.
The upside? Visitors to the FairX website are now treated to the tiniest of smiles:
Image via FairX.io. Car image via Shutterstock.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Crypto Drop Wipes Out $370M in Bullish Bets as BTC, ETH Give Back Gains
Binance, Hyperliquid, and Bybit were the most affected exchanges, comprising 72% of all forced unwinds.
What to know:
- Crypto markets experienced a significant leverage reset with over $514 million in positions liquidated in 24 hours.
- Long positions accounted for $376 million of the liquidations, indicating traders were heavily betting on continued market gains.
- Binance, Hyperliquid, and Bybit were the most affected exchanges, comprising 72% of all forced unwinds.
Top Stories
