Monday, 13 March 2023
by Berkeley Lovelace
It’s been a turbulent week in finance with the so-called crypto-friendly Silvergate Bank announcing its liquidation, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren blaming the event on “crypto risk,” and individuals on social media pointing out that Warren is “terribly misinformed.” Additionally, U.S. Regulators closed Silicon Valley Bank after reports of a bank run and other troubles. In other developments, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s address allegedly sold trillions of airdropped ERC20 tokens, causing negative price moves, and India-Russia oil deals could be challenging U.S. dollar dominance. All this and more, just below, in the Bitcoin.com News Week in Review.
After Silvergate Bank announced its voluntary liquidation, U.S. senator Elizabeth Warren is attributing the financial institution’s downfall to “crypto risk.” According to Warren, she had previously warned about Silvergate. However, some critics are dismissing Warren’s opinion as “terribly misinformed” and claim that she is “tossing out egregious accusations.”
After Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) experienced financial turmoil, the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation closed the financial institution. Insured depositors can withdraw their funds on Monday after the FDIC took over the failed bank.
On March 7, onchain observers noticed that Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, had allegedly sold billions and trillions of airdropped ERC20 tokens, resulting in a gain of an estimated $700,000 in value. The market liquidity of the airdropped tokens was shallow, and the relatively unknown ERC20 tokens plummeted in value after Buterin reportedly sold the funds.
On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Western sanctions on Russia and oil trading between Moscow and India have started to erode the dollar’s decades-old dominance of international oil trade. The oil deals between India and Russia have been settled in other currencies, putting the U.S. dollar’s dominance in the oil trade under pressure.
What are your thoughts on this week’s stories? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below.