I think they are independently run actually. I don't trust Xerobank at all, their owner (who also was in agorist community long before SR) is a master of marketing and a dumbass when it comes to actually knowing anything. He is largely seen as a troll. That said, I can say cryptohippie in particular has smart people working for them, who actually know technical security to great detail, but I am unwavering in my suggestion of Tor over any VPN provider, and strongly suggest using a private VPS to exit if you need to hide that you use Tor. I hate to see xerobank and cryptohippie seen as the same thing, Xerobank is a joke and steve is a troll who actually doesn't know shit about security, cryptohippie at least has people who know what they are talking about working for them, but it is no replacement for Tor anymore than Jondonym is. The primary difference between the three can be summed up like this: Xerobank: "We have ultra secret attacks that make Tor shit! Pay us to keep you safe with our secret system! We can not say anything more omfg blackhelicopters1111!!!!" Metropipe: "Use Tor if you need strong anonymity" Cryptohippie: "None of our clients have been compromised so far!" (probably because most of their clients are businesses and trying to protect from corporate espionage, not from feds with warrants)