More Bank Woes + Crypto Not Responsible for Bank Problems

Coinigy Team -

Hello there!

Welcome to this week's edition of our newsletter. The past week has been a tumultuous one in the world of finance, with two major US banks collapsing for various reasons.

This month, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) failed, and Signature Bank closed. This makes us wonder how stable and reliable traditional banking systems are.

As expected because they are crypto-friendly banks, fingers have been pointed at the crypto market for these bank woes. But is it fair to blame the crypto market for the problems faced by traditional banks?

Anyway, here are this week’s highlights

  • Coinbase Considers Opening Non-US Entity
  • Signature Bank regulator says it was closed for not providing data
  • Don’t Blame Crypto for Your Banking Problems
  • Cathie Wood's Ark investment raises $16 million for private crypto funds
  • Offchain Labs, the developer of Arbitrum, announced new $ARB token

Coinbase Is Considering Diversifying Its Regulatory Risk By Moving A Trading Unit Outside Of The U.S.

If Coinbase does decide to open a beachhead abroad, it would open up additional markets and gain new customers. The potential new trading platform based outside of the U.S. could both diversify its business model and cut down on regulatory risks back home in the U.S. Read the full story.

Signature Bank regulator says it was closed for not providing data

Signature Bank was closed down on March 12. Its shuttering was part of a wave of bank closures that had started the previous week, including Silvergate Capital and Silicon Valley Bank. According to a March 14 report, Signature Bank was shut down for “failing to provide consistent and reliable data” and not because of a bias against crypto. Here’s the complete story.

Don’t Blame Crypto for Your Banking Problems

The narrative conflating SVB with crypto woes is dangerously misleading. Even though USDC held reserves at Silicon Valley, SVB was not a crypto-focused bank, it was a technology and healthcare-focused bank. Why is SVB failing on the heels of Silvergate’s wind down? Did Silvergate’s collapse cause SVB’s failure? Or was it simply correlation, though perhaps with some shared underlying causes? Read the full story.

Cathie Wood's Ark investment raises $16 million for private crypto funds

Cathie Wood's Ark Investment raised about $16 million for new private crypto funds, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange filings. The ARK Crypto Revolutions U.S. Fund LLC raised about $7.3 million from nine investors, while the ARK Crypto Revolutions Cayman Fund LLC raised $8.99 million from a single investor totaling approximately $16.3 million. Read the full story.

Offchain Labs, the developer of Arbitrum, announced new $ARB token

Offchain Labs Inc., the developer of the Ethereum blockchain scaling solution Arbitrum, announced four days ago that it will airdrop, or give away for free to select people, its new token $ARB, a new cryptocurrency that would be used for voting on two of its blockchain products. Read the full story.

Other highlights worth mentioning

  • Binance will convert $1B worth of BUSD stablecoin to Bitcoin, Ether, BNB and other tokens - Coindesk
  • USDC bounces back toward $1 peg after Fed announcement - Cointelegraph
  • Ethereum Devs Finally Set Date for ETH Withdrawals - Decrypt