This week in parts. Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt.
After three consecutive weeks of lossesprices turned verdant for holders of the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization this week.
Bitcoin (BTC) has exploded 36% in the past seven days and is now trading at around $27,515 according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Last week, Bitcoin lost around 10% in response to news that Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) failed to serve the industry.
The #2 Industry Coin, Ethereum (ETH), Is Back Where It Used To Be before the slowdown. ETH is up 27% over the seven days and is currently changing hands at $1,832.
The Entire Crypto Market Came Back To Life From Last Sunday Night after the Federal Reserve, US Treasury and FDIC announced they would step in to support all deposits at Signature and SVB. This the promise was reiterated by President Biden.
However, the crypto did not emerge completely unscathed: the industry lost its two most crypto-friendly banks, and now conflicting reports are swirling over whether the FDIC is tell potential buyers of Signature Bank that it will have to exit the bank’s crypto business. Former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank claims the Feds shut down Signature to send an “anti-crypto message” and a Reuters a report later that week appeared to confirm Frank’s claims; the FDIC has since denied the allegations made in the Reuters history.
In the UK, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt announced that the UK Treasury, the UK Treasury, had brokered a bailout deal in which HSBC acquired the UK arm of SVB. for £1 to create entire UK businesses exposed to the bank.
In addition to these interventions, investors were drawn into risky assets such as crypto and tech stocks this week after signs emerged that the banking crisis could spread to European TradFi institutions: Swiss credit announced on Wednesday $54 billion loan of the Swiss National Bank to strengthen its liquidity.
Virtually all of the top thirty cryptocurrencies by market capitalization posted significant gains this week, but some of the biggest gainers outside of Bitcoin and Ethereum were Filecoin (FIL), which rose 33% to $6.39, Polygon (MATIC), which was up 22% at $1.24, Solana (SOL), which was up 28% at $22.30, and BNB, which was up 25% at $344.76.
USDC – the dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Circle – slipped its peg last weekend and fell as low as 87 cents after uncertainty over the company’s exposure to embattled banks. He restabilized this week in reaction to rescue news.
