--- title: "Online Bank Users Horrified as Their Savings Accounts Vanish Into Thin Air" description: "People who put their savings into fintech services are left holding the bag after a little-known firm went broke and took their life savings." date: "2024-11-26" modified: "2024-11-26" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/fintech-firm-missing-money" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "bankruptcy" - "finance" - "fintech" - "the digest" --- # Online Bank Users Horrified as Their Savings Accounts Vanish Into Thin Air ![People who put their savings into fintech services are left holding the bag after a little-known firm went broke and took their life savings.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Collateral Damage People who put their savings into banking startups Yotta and Juno are left holding the bag after a little-known middleman firm went belly-up — and took their life savings with it. As [*CNBC* reports](), the dispute between that middleman, Synapse, and its lender, Evolve Bank & Trust, has left thousands of people in a nightmare scenario where their money has seemingly vanished into thin air. The debacle began earlier this year when the Andreessen Horowitz-backed Synapse and the FDIC-insured Evolve Bank began beefing over customer account balances. As a result, the startup locked user accounts — and ended up going bankrupt after the apps it worked with jumped ship. ## Exploding Synapses Immediately after Synapse filed for bankruptcy, a court-appointed trustee discovered that up to [$96 million of its customer funds were missing](). Six months of back-and-forth between Synapse and Evolve later, the only thing certain about that missing money is that it's completely screwed over the people who trusted those companies to safeguard their savings. Kayla Morris, a Yotta user, said during a recent court hearing that after putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into savings with the expectation that she'd have access to it, she was perturbed when she got a check for a tiny fraction of what she was owed. "We were informed last Monday that Evolve was only going to pay us $500 out of that $280,000," Morris told the California bankruptcy court. "It’s just devastating." ## Fight Night Thus far, regulators have declined to handle the situation [because Synapse isn't technically a bank]() — and now, people caught in the crosshairs are taking matters into their own hands. Zach Jacobs, another Yotta customer, was so angry when he was offered a piddling $126 of the more than $94,000 he put in his savings account that he decided to organize. With his Fight for Our Funds volunteer group, Jacobs hopes to, as the [organization's website explains](), "apply pressure to every regulatory, legislative, and law enforcement body in the United States" as he and the thousands of people who joined up try to get their money back. "When you tell people about this, it’s like, 'There’s no way this can happen,'" Jacobs told *CNBC*. "A bank just robbed us. This is the first reverse bank robbery in the history of America." **More on fintech:** [*Intuit Begs Journalists to Delete Part of Interview With Its CEO*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()