OTC’s Weekly Retrospect 13/03–17/03/2023

Each week we bring you a round-up of the most important Bitcoin and virtual asset-related stories making waves in the cryptosphere.­­­­

Major news stories this week;

1. Signature Bank becomes the next casualty of banking turmoil after SVB
2. Binance Stops Deposits and Withdrawals for UK Customers
3. Stablecoin USDC breaks dollar peg after revealing $3.3 billion Silicon Valley Bank Exposure
4. Crypto bank Silvergate announces liquidation amid sector turmoil
5. Circle ‘substantially clears’ backlog of USDC redemptions

Story Summaries;

1. State regulators closed New York-based Signature Bank on Sunday, the third largest failure in U.S. banking history, two days after authorities shuttered Silicon Valley Bank in a collapse that stranded billions in deposits. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took control of Signature, which had $110.36 billion in assets and $88.59 in deposits at the end of last year, according to New York state’s Department of Financial Services.
2. On Monday, Binance said it would suspend withdrawals and deposits for anybody using UK currency. The news came after the world’s largest crypto exchange’s banking partner in the UK, Paysafe, said it was abandoning crypto, at least as far as Binance was concerned. In a statement to Gizmodo, a Paysafe spokesperson said that it was “too challenging” to offer its embedded wallet cryptocurrency services to UK customers because of the regulatory atmosphere in the UK.
3. Stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) lost its dollar peg and slumped to an all-time low on Saturday after Circle, the US firm behind the coin, revealed some of the reserves backing it were held at Silicon Valley Bank. Circle has $3.3 billion of its $40 billion of USDC reserves at collapsed lender Silicon Valley Bank, the company said in a tweet Friday. The coin broke its 1:1 dollar peg and fell as low as $0.88 early Saturday, according to market tracker CoinGecko. It recovered slightly to trade around $0.90.
4. The cryptocurrency-focused US lender Silvergate is to wind down its operations after it was hit by customer withdrawals following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. The California-based bank had warned last week it was “less than well capitalized” after depositors demanding their money back, adding that it was evaluating its ability to operate as a going concern.
5. “Circle — the embattled operator of stablecoin USDC — claims to have “cleared substantially all of the backlog of minting and redemption requests for USDC.” The statement comes via an update on USDC operations and claims that “since Monday morning, Circle has redeemed $3.8 billion USDC and minted $0.8 billion USDC.”.

And that’s all for this week’s news! Wishing you a great weekend ahead!