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An Update on USDC and Silicon Valley Bank

circle.com

31–40 of 204 posts

Re: An Update on USDC and Silicon Valley Bank

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the insurance doesn't apply to the full amount.

The insurance is negligible for them.

Hence the government protection should be partial. Mostly just making sure SVB's assets are used to lessen the impact of the closure. If that results in Circle getting pennies on the dollar then so be it.

Re: An Update on USDC and Silicon Valley Bank

#32
post #24
post #6

23% of the reserve, or $9.7B is held in cash. I think on Thursday, SVB saw cash outflow requests over $40b in one day. USDC peg is so far below 1 right now there will definitely be a lot of par arbitrage Monday trying to withdraw. Hopefully it doesn’t take longer than a day for them to settle treasury trades, and maybe some people have lost the keys to their crypto. They could also possibly have a line of credit with…

Can one short USDC with leverage?

Not easily that I know of, the best way would be to use a defi application like compound.finance. You can deposit usdc and take a loan against it in another currency. Then you repay the loan later. However, that is just a normal short. The only real way to lever this is to keep depositing the loan money, and taking out more loans which is expensive in terms of fees.

Re: An Update on USDC and Silicon Valley Bank

#33
post #3

After the fall of Terra, it's clear that stablecoins can only go down in value. There's also no FDIC to step in to take over the failing stablecoin. You're trusting USDC and by extension BlackRock to do the right thing here. If it's not a security than it's not regulated.

...it's clear that stablecoins can only go down in value

That's just a truism, regardless of the stablecoin or the state that it's in. No-one should ever expect a $1 stablecoin to trade significantly higher than $1, since the creators of the coin can easily arb the difference to pocket some free money.

Re: An Update on USDC and Silicon Valley Bank

#34
post #8
post #3

After the fall of Terra, it's clear that stablecoins can only go down in value. There's also no FDIC to step in to take over the failing stablecoin. You're trusting USDC and by extension BlackRock to do the right thing here. If it's not a security than it's not regulated.

Terra was no stablecoin and it has been constantly pointed out that it wasn't. USDC is backed 1 USDC for 1 USD. What you're actually seeing here is that the traditional finance system has lead to a crash in crypto. That's almost refreshing. Usually crypto fucks up by itself (see FTX and Terra for the most recent ones).

> USDC is backed 1 USDC for 1 USD

It’s at least 87¢ and 23¢ of priority unsecured claims on a bank in receivership.

Re: An Update on USDC and Silicon Valley Bank

#35
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Terra was collateralized by crypto. USDT is collateralized by… something, maybe. Given that USDT always regained its peg regardless, the depeg of USDC seems like an overreaction.

USDT always regained its peg until one day it doesn't

Terra regained it's peg until it didn't.

Re: An Update on USDC and Silicon Valley Bank

#36
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Terra was collateralized by crypto. USDT is collateralized by… something, maybe. Given that USDT always regained its peg regardless, the depeg of USDC seems like an overreaction.

USDT always regained its peg until one day it doesn't

That day will be when they finally release an audit

Re: An Update on USDC and Silicon Valley Bank

#37

>Moreover, SVB has a strong franchise that is at the center of American entrepreneurship and technology industry growth. Tl:Dr: Save us, Big Government.

They deposited 3B with this bank for the specific purpose of it being a safe place. Their 10B in cash was spread over 6 banks to diversify the bank risk. They have plenty of higher risk investments in their treasury, but these ones were the safe ones intentionally put into banks with insurance. If the government protection wasn't there the investment would’t have been there in the first place

> 10B in cash was spread over 6 banks to diversify the bank risk

This is nonsense Treasury management. Fidelity spreads checking account deposits across twenty-six banks to reach $3mm FDIC coverage [1]. Beyond sweep, Circle’s assets should be in short-term, on-the-run Treasuries, repos and commercial paper.

[1] https://accountopening.fidelity.com/ftgw/aong/aongapp/fdicBa...

Re: An Update on USDC and Silicon Valley Bank

#38
post #29
post #6

23% of the reserve, or $9.7B is held in cash. I think on Thursday, SVB saw cash outflow requests over $40b in one day. USDC peg is so far below 1 right now there will definitely be a lot of par arbitrage Monday trying to withdraw. Hopefully it doesn’t take longer than a day for them to settle treasury trades, and maybe some people have lost the keys to their crypto. They could also possibly have a line of credit with…

The creators of USDC could destroy their own coins to restore the 1:1 reserve peg. I doubt they'd do it, but it would immediately restore confidence. Send them to a null address or commit to burning them in software. If they can restore the reserve, they could remint them. I'm a crypto bear (with modest crypto holdings for diversification), and I think this is an opportunity for these folks to step up to the plate an…

IMHO, they are justifiably confident that this will all blow over in a few days, and that their deposits will be available to them soon after, albeit with a few percent missing.

But I concur - they are showing their true colors by not defending the peg.

Re: An Update on USDC and Silicon Valley Bank

#39
post #18
post #5

What they don't bring up. The peg is a lie, hit $0.87. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/11/stablecoin-usdc-breaks-dolla...

Pausing USDC->USD over the weekend isn't going to help confidence either.

USDC -> USD always only ever worked during banking hours. Exchanges offering USDC USD at any time have had to account for this and have enough reserves of USD and USDC themselves.

Re: An Update on USDC and Silicon Valley Bank

#40
post #32
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can one short USDC with leverage?

Not easily that I know of, the best way would be to use a defi application like compound.finance. You can deposit usdc and take a loan against it in another currency. Then you repay the loan later. However, that is just a normal short. The only real way to lever this is to keep depositing the loan money, and taking out more loans which is expensive in terms of fees.

You can trade it with leverage here:

https://www.bybit.com/trade/usdt/USDCUSDT

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