Pro: SVB collapse may put this crypto bank in a stronger position

  • 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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Game from abandoned Logan Paul’s Crypto Zoo project developed in 30 days

  • 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.

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Ark Invest adds $20.5M Coinbase shares: COIN share price down 7%

  • 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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HT, Huobi’s native token, price crashed by 90% on Thursday: here’s why

  • $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.

Huobi price Chart: Source CoinMarketCap

 

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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Hut 8 Mining swings to adjusted EBITDA loss in its fiscal Q4

  • Hut 8 Mining reports disappointing results for its fiscal Q4.
  • Digital assets mined this quarter was also down year-on-year.
  • Wall Street currently has a consensus overweight rating on HUT.

Hut 8 Mining Corp (TSE: HUT) is trading down this morning after reporting disappointing results for its fourth financial quarter.

Digital assets mined was also down year-on-year

Digital assets the Toronto-headquartered firm produced in Q4 were 698 versus a much higher 789 in the same quarter last year. In the earnings press release, CFO Shenif Visram said:

We continued to fastidiously manage our finances through the fourth quarter, which allowed us to navigate sustained bitcoin price suppression, fluctuating power prices and increased network difficulty.

The crypto company’s installed hashrate currently sits at about 2.5 EH/s. Wall Street currently has a consensus “overweight” rating on the Hut 8 Mining stock and sees upside in it to $3.38 on average – about a 75% premium on its current price.

Notable figures in Hut 8 Mining’s earnings report

  • Lost C$186.7 million versus the year-ago C$111.2 million
  • Per-share loss also widened from 67 cents to 90 cents
  • Swung to an adjusted EBITDA loss of C$3.9 million
  • Revenue also declined about 62% YoY to C$21.8 million
  • Analysts had forecast a higher C$24.5 million of revenue

Last month, Hut 8 Mining said it will merge with US Bitcoin Corp in an all-stock transaction. According to CEO Jaime Leverton said:

We’ll continue to uphold our operating principles as we work to close business combination with USBTC and begin operating as a US-domiciled, digital asset mining, hosting organisation.

Versus its year-to-date high, Hut 8 Mining stock is now down more than 40%.

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