USDC & SVBIn the past 24 hours, the trading volume of the Bybit USDC/USDT perpetual contract pair exceeded an astonishing $380 million, and the annualized funding rate was as high as 740%
After Friday's stunning collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, questions swirled around the exposure of one of crypto's top firms, Circle, the issuer of the second-largest stablecoin, USDC.
In its March attestation, Circle had revealed that part of its $9.88 billion in cash reserves was held at SVB, although it did not disclose the total amount. Following the collapse of SVB, withdrawals from USDC mounted, with the crypto intelligence platform Nansen showing over $1 billion in redemptions from the stablecoin since SVB's shutdown. USDC has a market cap just north of $40 billion.
As USDC lost its $1 peg across different crypto exchanges amid withdrawals, Circle sought to instill confidence, with the company tweeting at 6:50 pm ET that it would continue to operate normally, sharing that SVB was one of the six banking partners it uses for the 25% of its reserves that it keeps in cash, although still not disclosing the amount held at SVB.
As investors continued to move out of USDC, Binance announced it would be temporarily suspending its auto-conversion policy of USDC to its BUSD stablecoin, citing "market conditions" and describing the action as a "normal risk-management procedural step." At 10:11 PM ET, Circle offered more clarity, tweeting that $3.3 billion—or around 8%—of its reserves remained at SVB, revealing that wires initiated on Thursday to remove balances from the bank had not been processed. Dante Disparte, Circle's chief strategy officer, tweeted soon after that Circle was protecting USDC "from a black swan failure in the banking system."
Meanwhile, USDC's peg continued to weaken, with the token trading at $0.92 against tether on Kraken as of 10:40 pm ET. Coinbase announced it would be temporarily pausing conversions from USDC to USD over the weekend while banks are closed, adding that during periods of heightened activity, conversions rely on USD transfers from banks that clear during normal banking hours. Coinbase worked with Circle to create USDC, launching the token in 2018.
After the FDIC placed SVB into receivership on Friday, the weekend will prove an uncertain time as the financial world waits to see if the U.S. government is able to find a buyer for the failed bank or will otherwise backstop losses, with insured deposits only backed up to $250,000. Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers called for depositors to be paid back in full.
While the crypto industry seems to be safe from SVB contagion for now, with much of the sector moving to Signature Bank and other partners in the wake of Wednesday's voluntary liquidation of Silvergate, Circle could prove the exception. The firm is a fundamental cog in the crypto ecosystem, with USDC serving as a crucial on-ramp into crypto for investors globally.
Some onlookers expressed confidence that Circle would be able to weather the storm. The investor Adam Cochran tweeted that Circle could cover a possible $3.3 billion gap from the interest it collects from reserves, a sale share, or other venture debt. "This is a non-issue in my mind," he wrote.
The hedge fund North Rock Digital CEO Hal Press said that they has continued to buy more USDC at $0.88, having previously bought at $0.935; he believes that USDC will end up fully repegging, a worst case 70% of the cash via asset sales USDC would still be worth 93c.
