Silvergate Financial News

At the time when banks were collapsing last weekend and a major stablecoin depegged, tokenized diamond sales jumped 300%.

The rejection that followed Bitcoin's (BTC) rally to $26,500 may appear to be a victory for bears, but $24,750 on March 14 was the highest daily close in nine months. Furthermore, Bitcoin has gained 26.5% since March 10, when the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation shut down Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

Crypto companies are moving their money from banks to asset managers as the turmoil in global banks continue, but industry insiders don’t see the bank failures as the end of banking for the crypto sector.

The ongoing crisis of banks in the United States has many positive implications for Bitcoin (BTC), according to an executive at the hardware wallet firm Trezor.

Over the last week, the collapse of three of the largest banks backing the crypto scene — Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank — has many industry pundits wondering how United States-based crypto companies will fare after such losses.

Amid the ongoing United States banking crisis, several major cryptocurrency firms have denied exposure to dissolved U.S. banks like Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

Silvergate Capital Corp. and Signature Bank — have set off a fresh set of stresses. SVB’s failure triggered a knock-on effect in the crucial market for stablecoins after digital-asset giant Circle Internet Financial Corp., one of the biggest issuers of the widely used tokens known for their perceived safety, revealed it had $3.3 billion of reserves with the bank. The news caused Circle’s token, USD Coin, to slip below its intended 1-for-1 peg with the dollar, sending a shock through the market. On Sunday, regulators in New York closed Signature Bank. As of March 8, the bank still held $16.5 billion in crypto-related deposits. “All depositors of this institution will be made whole,” the regulators said. Against this backdrop, it is still the shutdown of crypto-friendly bank Silvergate — and the shuttering of its electronic payments platform, the Silvergate Exchange Network — that is most weighing on the market.

Digital asset investment products saw their highest-ever weekly outflow last week, according to the latest Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly Report released by CoinShares. The $255 million in net outflows amounted to 1.0% of total assets under management (AuM) fleeing from the space.

Last week, another major quake shook crypto markets. Silvergate Bank — a crypto-fiat gateway network for financial institutions and a significant on-ramp for cryptocurrencies in the United States — shut down operations due to liquidity problems. 

Cryptocurrency investment products lost 10% of assets under management last week as institutional investors rushed for the exit during the latest episode of market volatility prompted by the Silvergate and Silicon Valley Bank collapses.

After falling another 1% on Friday to take its week-to-date losses above 10%, Bitcoin (BTC) is now oversold, according to the widely followed 14-Day Relative Strength Index (RSI) indicator. BTC/USD was last changing hands in the $20,100s, having dipped as low as the $19,500s earlier in the session, with its RSI last just above 28.

The last 24-48 hours were yet another shocker for the crypto industry with the stock crash of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Though not a direct impact on Indian exchanges’ business, but popular crypto tokens trading on these platforms including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Binance Coin, Doge Coin, Shiba Inu among others crashed between 5-9 percent on March 10.

Silvergate Capital Corp disclosed plans to wind down operations and voluntarily liquidate, as the aftermath of FTX's implosion last year reverberates through the industry. Analysts said a complete closure of the crypto lender could take one or two years depending on how quickly outstanding loans are repaid and assets are disposed of. Silvergate's latest move adds to a list of high-profile collapses among crypto market players since last year. The company's shares plunged 37% to $3.11, a day after hitting a record low and have lost 64% since March 1 when the company flagged a going concern risk.

Major crypto exchange Kraken is finally putting its feet into the banking waters with the new Kraken Bank. 

Bitcoin dropped to the lowest level in about two weeks, part of a wider retreat in crypto markets as investors digested the unravelling of a key industry payments network. The largest token sank as much as 6% before paring some of the slide to trade 4.4% lower at $22,380 as of 8:30 a.m. Friday in London. Smaller coins such as Ether, Avalanche and the meme token Dogecoin also suffered declines. The digital-asset industry is absorbing the fallout of the troubles at crypto-friendly US bank Silvergate Capital Corp., which has said that it's reviewing whether it can remain viable. The bank offers a widely used payments network that facilitates the real-time transfer of funds between crypto firms. But many digital-asset exchanges, stablecoin issuers and trading desks are no longer accepting or initiating payments through Silvergate. «Silvergate is one of the main US dollar banking providers for the crypto industry,» said John Toro, head of trading at digital-asset exchange Independent Reserve. «Any liquidity concerns will have a direct impact on market conditions and may affect the access and availability of some client funds.»

Crypto-friendly bank Silvergate has been forced to return $9.85 million to BlockFi as part of the crypto lender’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.

This time, the counterparty is Silvergate Capital Corp., the bank behind a widely used payments network that facilitates the real-time transfer of money between crypto firms. Silvergate suffered from a run on deposits already last year, triggered by the bankruptcy of its key client FTX. On Wednesday, the bank said it sold more debt holdings at a loss and was reviewing whether it can remain viable. It also indicated it was being investigated by the US Justice Department. That warning prompted swift reactions by crypto exchanges, stablecoin issuers and trading desks. Coinbase Global Inc., Galaxy Digital and Paxos Trust Co. announced that they will no longer accept or initiate payments through Silvergate, as did Gemini Trust Co., Crypto.com and Cboe Clear Digital LLC.

MicroStrategy has denied any meaningful exposure to Silvergate as crypto firms who banked with the crypto bank are rushing for the exits amid concerns about its financial condition. 

Shares of Silvergate have seen a sharp drop in pre-market trading following the news that US officials have launched a probe into the crypto bank's dealings with fallen crypto giants FTX and Alameda Research. 

US senators have turned their focus to Silvergate Capital Corp. yet again, saying that the company's responses to a previous inquiry over its ties to the fallen FTX exchange were “evasive and incomplete.”

Signature Bank and Silvergate, two of the biggest crypto banks, have received billions in loans from the Federal Home Loan Banks, a system originally designed to support housing finance and community investment.