- Circle said $3.3 billion worth of USDC reserves are still in Silicon Valley Bank.
- Coinbase and Binance have temporarily stopped USDC:USD conversions.
It’s going to be a long weekend for the cryptocurrency market and the broader fintech industry. With the collapse of Silvergate and Silicon Valley Bank, both cryptocurrency holders and traditional investors are at risk of significant losses.
For cryptocurrency investors and traders, especially holders of the USDC stablecoin, the market has created a lot of speculation about the safety of user funds.
Circle, the peer-to-peer payments technology company that manages the popular stablecoin USDC, has made a worrying announcement about USDC reserves.
The company has explained on Twitter that significant USDC reserves are still held by Silicon Valley Bank. Circle revealed that while $40 billion worth of USDC was transferred, a wire transfer set up to withdraw the remaining $3.3 billion has yet to be processed.
1/ $3.3 billion of the ~$40 billion USDC reserve remains with SVB after confirming at the end of the day that the wire transfer initiated on Thursday to remove the balance had not been processed.
– Circle (@circle) March 11, 2023
Circle continues to observe the importance of Silicon Valley Bank. The company acknowledges that the bank is of importance to customers and depositors who seek banking services from it. Circle, like several other fintech companies, has called for the continuity of banking to be important to the U.S. economy. If regulators allow SVB to continue market activity in the future, Circle insists it will follow the guidance provided by state and federal regulators.
Binance and Coinbase Suspend USDC:USD Exchange at the Same Time
Meanwhile, leading cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase have halted USDC:USD conversions for the remainder of the weekend due to bank closures this week. Starting Monday, users will be able to make the switch. Coinbase review
“We will temporarily suspend USDC:USD conversions during weekend bank closures. During periods of high activity, conversions rely on USD transfers cleared by banks during normal business hours. When banks open on Monday, we plan to restart conversions. Your assets remain Safe and available for on-chain sending.”
Similarly, Binance also announced the suspension of USDC to BUSD exchange. Binance cited the current unfavorable market conditions as the reason for its decision. It further revealed that the move is a typical risk management procedure undertaken by exchanges while continuing to monitor market conditions.
Binance has suspended the automatic conversion of USDC to BUSD due to current market conditions, especially related to high inflows and increased burden of supporting conversions.
This is a normal risk management procedural step we take as we monitor the situation.
— Binance (@binance) March 11, 2023
To gain insight into the current situation, a Twitter user revealed where USDC is on different platforms.
USDC is distributed among 7 banks for 11.4b. Two are SVB and SI. BNY Mellon probably holds most of the assets (it’s safest, if they want yield they’ll buy Treasuries).If 20% is in SVB and SVB’s discount is 92% (aggressive), then USDC’s support is cut by 182m, which is easily absorbed by the CB balance sheet
USDC is distributed among 7 banks for 11.4b. Two are SVB and SI. BNY Mellon probably holds most of the assets (it’s safest, if they want yield they’ll buy Treasuries). If 20% is in SVB and SVB’s discount is 92% (aggressive), then USDC support is cut by 182m, which is easy… https://t.co/LDThgztBNY pic.twitter.com/LUKTP10tkn
— Avi (@AviFelman) March 10, 2023
At press time, USD Coin (USDC) is currently trading at $0.89, according to our data, after losing more than 7% in price over the past 24 hours and over the past seven days.
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