| | | | | | Good morning, Term Sheet readers. | | I got a scoop over the weekend regarding a bank's move to curb cryptocurrency-related international wires. Here's an excerpt: | | | | . |  | | . | | | | Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp, which is used by cryptocurrency companies and investment firms for wire transfers and deposits, has ceased all cryptocurrency-related international wires effective immediately, Fortune has learned. | | A Metropolitan customer confirmed to Fortune that his investment firm was notified on Thursday morning that the bank was "ceasing all international crypto-related wire transfers to and from" it effective immediately. The reason for the shutdown, according to the customer, was because the bank could not verify the compliance of international wire transfers for cryptocurrency accounts. The move is alleged to be a response to an incident of international fraud associated with one of the bank's clients. The bank denied this claim. | | A Metropolitan Bank representative said in a statement to Fortune that it "does not accept cryptocurrency-related wire transfers from non-U.S. entities." Additionally, the bank sent a reminder to customers of its policy in response to "certain cryptocurrency-related wire transfers from non-U.S. entities that were sent to the Bank in error." In other words, the bank claims it was not aware of the cryptocurrency-related international wires until last week. | | Fortune reviewed a customer's documentation of wires from a non-U.S.-based entity to its U.S.-based cryptocurrency-only fund that includes the word "Crypto" in the bank account's name. The customer added that he had previously worked with the bank on numerous occasions to ensure the international wires went through. Fortune is awaiting the bank's response to this claim. | | Digital currency wallet Coinbase is among the companies that use Metropolitan for wire transfers, deposits, and its Shift bitcoin debit card. | | Metropolitan has yet to provide further guidance on what might happen to the money that existing international clients have in the bank. | | For more on why this matters, read the full story here. | | SOFTBANK TO THE RESCUE: Auto1, a German used-car dealing platform, raised 460 million euro ($561 million) in funding from Japan's Softbank Group. The company might've raised that money with a stock market flotation, but now, there's no need. Auto1 co-founder Hakan Koc told Reuters that there's no pressure to IPO thanks to the financial infusion. "That's why we aren't considering going to the market for now," he said. | | So much for the theory that the IPO market will come out of its slump in 2018. Why go public when you have Masayoshi Son? | | PEOPLE MOVES: Nikhil Kalghatgi was recently named the general partner and CIO of CoVenture Crypto, a cryptocurrency asset management firm launched by CoVenture. Previously, Kalghatgi was a venture investor at SoftBank and Vast Ventures. | | | | . | | |  | | | | | | THE LATEST FROM FORTUNE... | | | | | | • Pony.ai, a Fremont, Calif. and China-based self-driving startup, raised $112 million in Series A funding. Morningside Venture Capital and Legend Capital led the round, and were joined by investors including Sequoia China, IDG Capital, Hongtai Capital, Legend Star, Puhua Capital, Polaris Capital, DCM Ventures, Comcast Ventures and Silicon Valley Future Capital. • True Fit, a Boston-based personalization platform for apparel and footwear, raised $55 million in Series C funding. 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