Kategorie: Crypto Markets

• Circle said it failed to remove $3.3 billion from Silicon Valley Bank.
• SVB is under FDIC receivership following its collapse.
• USDC depegged following the news, falling 8% to hit lows of $0.91 on Saturday morning.

Circle, the blockchain payments company that issues the USDC stablecoin, has confirmed that $3.3 billion worth of USDC reserves are stuck at the troubled Silicon Valley Bank.

The latest cryptocurrency news around USDC comes after crypto markets sank on Thursday amid the collapse of SVB and Silvergate Bank.

USDC depegs as Circle confirms $3.3 billion SVB exposure

In a tweet late Friday, Circle noted that efforts to remove its balances from the bank had failed on Thursday, meaning $3.3 billion of the stablecoin’s cash reserves remain at the bank.

“Following the confirmation at the end of today that the wires initiated on Thursday to remove balances were not yet processed, $3.3 billion of the ~$40 billion of USDC reserves remain at SVB,” the firm noted.

In a follow up tweet as it confirmed the exposure to the collapsed bank, the firm noted:

“Like other customers and depositors who relied on SVB for banking services, Circle joins calls for continuity of this important bank in the U.S. economy and will follow guidance provided by state and Federal regulators.”

Circle had earlier disclosed that SVB was one of six banking partners that held roughly 25% of the cash reserves for USDC. That includes Signature Bank and Silvergate Bank that recently announced it was liquidating.

The full list of banks that held cash for Circle’s USDC are Bank of New York Mellon, Citizens Trust Bank, Customers Bank, New York Community Bank (a division of Flagstar Bank, N.A.), Signature Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate Bank.

Read more: https://t.co/xzeyqRgk8D

— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) March 11, 2023

Even as sentiment veered south, Circle had noted that it continued to “operate normally,” hinting that it was waiting for clarity on the impact of SVB’s FDIC receivership on depositors before providing more details.

But with uncertainty rising, USDC lost its dollar peg, falling more than 8% to lows of $0.91 early Saturday.

“A black swan failure in US banking system”

Dante Disparte, the Chief Strategy Officer & Head of Global Policy at Circle, also commented on the unfolding events, noting that the company was “protecting USDC from a black swan failure in the US banking system.”

“[SVB] is a critical bank in the US economy and its failure – without a Federal rescue plan – will have broader implications for business, banking and entrepreneurs,” he added.

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• FDIC closed Silicon Valley Bank today and took control of its deposits.
• Austin Campbell says it could actually be a benefit for Signature Bank.
• Shares of Signature Bank ended more than 20% down on Friday.

Shares of Signature Bank (NYSE: SBNY) ended more than 20% down today following the collapse of its crypto banking peer SVB Financial.

SVB marks one of the largest U.S. bank failures

On Friday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation closed the said bank and took control of its deposits – a development that particularly shook financial stocks since such a bank failure was last seen only during the global financial crisis.

Remember that the news follows an announcement also from Silvergate Capital that it will liquidate its crypto bank. Consequently, a bunch of crypto companies in recent days picked Signature Bank as a replacement.

Still, the New York-based commercial bank says it’s exposure to digital assets is fairly small. “SBNY” is now down about 35% for the year.

Pro explains what it all means for Signature Bank

On the plus side, Austin Campbell of Zero Knowledge Consulting expects both Silvergate and the SVB news to actually be a benefit for Signature Bank.

He’s convinced that the diversified deposit base will help it avoid falling prey to the same structural weakness. In a tweet this afternoon, Campbell wrote:

Keep in mind you have to be a forced seller. Deposits moving from SVB go to other banks so this is likely improving the position of competitors like SBNY.

His view is in line with the JPMorgan analyst Vivek Juneja who also doesn’t expect the SVB fiasco to spill over to other banks. In January, Signature Bank said its net income increased just over 10% year-on-year in its fourth financial quarter.

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• Degen Zoo NFT game has been developed in a record 30 days.
• Degen Zoo is derived from the abandoned Logan Paul’s abandoned Crypto Zoo project.
• Logan Paul had indicated that Crypto Zoo would take years to develop.

DAO Maker (DAO/USD) founder Christoph Zaknun has launched the Degen Zoo game, an NFT game derived from Logan Paul’s abandoned Crypto Zoo. Zaknun developed the NFT game in a record 30 days single-handedly to disapprove of Logan Paul’s claim that his Crypto Zoo would take years to develop.

Zaknun took the challenge to build the game in 30 days after Logan Paul, who is a popular YouTube star, released a video saying that Christoph Zaknun had no right to dictate the required development timeline. Zaknun further highlighted Paul Logan’s greed by pledging to donate all the profits from the game to charity.

115k wallets lining up for the new game

As of today, more than 115,000 crypto wallets have registered to join the Degen Zoo NFT game pledging over $700 million, which is a new record for crypto games.

During the course of the game development whose progress Zaknun broadcasted daily, more than 250,000 people followed the Degen Zoo on Twitter.

Degen Zoo has a deflationary token and an NFT collection featuring 120 endangered species. The game is designed to simulate the impact of capitalism on animal extinction. Players will be incentivized to “kill” their NFT-minted animal, pushing the collection to extinction to raise awareness of the devastating effects of human greed on wildlife.

Degen Zoo testnet

A testnet of the Degen Zoo was released a few days before the 30-day deadline and within a short while, 30,000 testnet transactions had been made by about 3,000 players.

Christoph Zaknun is now proceeding with the mainnet release of Degen Zoo. The DAO Maker co-founder has exceeded the demand of previous GameFi release date benchmarks.

The post Game from abandoned Logan Paul’s Crypto Zoo project developed in 30 days appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Ark Invest purchased 301,347 Coinbase shares on Thursday.
• Ark had purchased more Coinbase shares on Wednesday.
• In February Ark purchased $30 million worth of Coinbase shares.

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest has remained bullish on Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) stock despite the stock dropping by more than 10% since the beginning of March. On March 10, 2023, Coinbase shares were going for $64.67 compared to today’s price of $58.09.

According to its latest trade filing, Ark Invest on Thursday added 301,437 Coinbase shares to its Ark Innovation ETF and 52,525 Coinbase shares to Ark Next Generation Internet. The total value of shares purchased by Ark on Thursday amounted to $20.5 million.

Ark Invest also added 265,000 Robinhood shares (worth about $2.5 million), which were solely added to the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF.

Ark invests in Coinbase amid the crypto meltdown

While many are sceptical about crypto-related firms amid the current crypto market meltdown, Cathie Wood seems quite optimistic about Coinbase, which could be seen as a vote of confidence on the crypto exchange.

While several cryptocurrency exchanges are facing accusations by various regulatory authorities in the United States, Coinbase has continued to receive some considerable edge. For example, the US government recently reportedly moved BTC worth $217 million to Coinbase. The collapse of crypto-friendly bank Silvergate, the shockwaves caused by crypto VCs-friendly Silicon Valley Bank selling assets and stock to raise funds, and the risk of prolonged interest rate increases in the US have driven down market sentiment this week.

In February Ark purchased Coinbase shares worth more than $30 million adding to another $3.2 million worth of Coinbase shares purchased in December.

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• $2 million HT tokens were sold on Huobi prior to the crash.
• HT price momentarily dropped from $4.6 to $0.31.
• Tron’s founder Justin Sun is the largest holder of HT tokens.

HT, the native token of Huobi Exchange, crashed by over 90% on Thursday dropping to $0.31 from $4.6 in just 10 minutes.

Although the price has since recovered, the token was trading at $3.81, 21% down in the past 24 hours at press time.

What caused the brief HT price drop?

According to transaction data from Kaiko’s research analyst, Riyad Carey, more than $2 million HT tokens were sold on Huobi in the minutes leading to the HT crash. Justin Sun was also reported to have moved $60 million in USDT from Huobi to Aave.

Interestingly, Tron’s founder Justin Sun is the largest holder of HT tokens and serves as an advisor to the Huobi crypto exchange.

In the same period when HT price dropped by 90%, Tron’s token, TRX price dropped by 12% from $0.057 to $0.066.

Commenting on the spontaneous price plunge Justin Sun said:

“Few users triggering a cascade of forced liquidations in the spot and HT contract markets… We will continue to improve the liquidity depth of main cryptocurrencies and HT token, strengthen leverage risk warnings and liquidity capabilities.”

Sun also dismissed the price drop as a normal market occurrence and assured the Huobi community that Huobi operations are safe. He also said that he will create a $100 million liquidity fund for those impacted by the leveraged liquidation. He actually confirmed via Twitter that he has transferred $100 million in USDC stablecoin to Huobi.

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