Applying for a banking license is time-consuming. Buying a local bank is a comparatively quick way to end-run around that process. In and of itself it's not a sign of anything shady - buying a bank is a pretty common part of the business plan for fintech startups that don't want to sit around for years waiting for government approval.
That being said, SoFi bought the entirety of Golden Pacific Bank for $23 million, and they were 20x the size of this bank (as well as having actual mortgage infrastructure and a wide variety of products). Buying 10% of a bank with only $10 million in assets for $12 million is very weird, at the very least it’s a horrible deal
Yes, they're criminals who belong in jail but only for the way they managed their balance sheet. They were also great builders who had awesome products and wanted to do all the great things they said they wanted to do.
Buying a bank is something probably every crypto exchange has considered doing, so they can have access to the financial system and not have to pay massive amounts of money and have huge headaches processing payments for their customers. I'm surprised Coinbase doesn't own one by now - or perhaps they do.
I think SBF was VERY informed, especially looking at his background. It's simple greed for power (not even the money).
Banking is weird. Like, how did they find this bank? What makes it better than other random local banks across the country? Is there a marketplace for these banking partnership opportunities?