#162 Signature Bank Had $34B in Liquidity. They Shut It Down Anyway | Scott Shay, N3XT

Background: Scott Shay — founder of four banks, including Signature Bank and its crypto network Signet. Now building N3XT Bank. Decades of banking experience, including as Vice Chairman of the Mid-Sized Bank Coalition of America.

Description: In this episode of the **Alt Funds Network Podcast**, Mike Schroeder and Skyler Steinke sit down with **Scott Shay**, the founder of Signature Bank and its groundbreaking Signet payment network, to discuss the evolution of crypto banking, the collapse of Signature Bank, stablecoins, full-reserve banking, and his vision for the future with **N3XT**.

Scott shares his firsthand perspective on how Signet enabled 24/7 blockchain-based payments and transferred more than $1 trillion before Signature Bank was shut down in March 2023. He explains what that experience revealed about the vulnerabilities of traditional fractional-reserve banking—and why he believes the financial system needs a fundamentally different model.

The conversation then turns to N3XT, Scott’s vision for a **full-reserve U.S. bank** designed around fully backed digital dollars, on-chain payments, and a new approach to moving money globally. Scott explains how N3XT aims to create digital representations of U.S. dollars that can move between approved wallets while remaining backed by actual dollar deposits and bank capital.

Scott also discusses the future of **crypto banking, stablecoins, tokenized deposits, digital dollars, blockchain payments, and financial infrastructure**, offering a unique perspective shaped by decades of experience building banks.