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“The narratives around bank failures, stablecoins and interest rate hikes seem strong enough to propel the price of bitcoin. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) failed on March 10, and since then the price of bitcoin (BTC) has been on a tear.
At least three banks have failed, others – both American and non-American – are failing. Credit Suisse (CS) just received a 50 billion Swiss franc loan from the Swiss central bank, and 11 banks just injected $30 billion into California-based regional bank First Republic Bank (FRC) in order to save it.
On the former, it is telling that the central bank wants to save Credit Suisse. On the latter, it is even more telling that banks want to save a competitor for fear of contagion.
That all said, we know one thing that isn’t causing these banks to fail. These banks aren’t in trouble because of bets on bitcoin, crypto or the companies in those industries. What appears to be happening is the fractional reserve banking system is under stress due to rising interest rates, and it’s showing cracks.
And so the narrative goes: As the banks fail, opt out and buy bitcoin.
[Further], it looks like we might have a suspension of interest rate hikes from the U.S. Federal Reserve, which would give the entire market a well-needed breather. On Wednesday, the CME FedWatch Tool, a predictor of interest rate decisions, forecast a 45% chance of a zero basis point rate hike. It’s now predicting an 80.5% chance of a 25 basis point (bps) increase. Both numbers contrast sharply from last week when the CME showed a 68% chance of a 50 bps rate boost.”
See Also: Bitcoin, Ether Swing From Cold to Hot in Event-Filled Week
See Also: Crypto market cap reclaims $1T, and derivatives point to further upside
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“Salesforce will help their clients onboard to Polygon with its management platform to help its clients create token-based loyalty programs. Monitor real-time blockchain data from collections launched on Ethereum and Polygon within your CRM.
The news comes after the enterprise software giant said on March 15 that it is expanding its client services to include management of non-fungible token (NFT) loyalty programs.”
“Microsoft is working on a non-custodial built-in Ethereum crypto wallet for Microsoft Edge to allow users to send and receive cryptocurrency and NFTs.
This is a non-custodial wallet, meaning you are in complete control of your funds. We will not have access to your password and recovery key. It is embedded in Edge, making it easy to use without installing any extension.
After finishing the onboarding process, the wallet generates an Ethereum address to allow users to receive funds through the Ethereum network. The Edge crypto wallet can connect to decentralized apps (dApps) and has a news section to keep track of the latest developments in cryptocurrency. Microsoft has [also] partnered with Consensys to offer a built-in cryptocurrency swap feature.”
“Today, the Filecoin community is proud to announce the successful launch of the Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM). The Filecoin blockchain now supports smart contracts and user programmability via the Filecoin Virtual Machine, unlocking the enormous potential of an open data economy.
The launch of FVM kicks off the final step in the Filecoin Masterplan, which aims to bring large-scale computation and the ability to power web-scale apps to the world’s largest decentralized storage network.
This launch is a landmark milestone in Filecoin’s larger roadmap, which aims to bring open access and public verifiability to the three key arms of the data economy (storage, compute and content-delivery). FVM allows developers to orchestrate where, when and how data gets placed, governed, and monetized on open markets.
The FVM not only brings closer a more resilient, accessible and decentralized cloud, but also opportunities to own and reward individual contributions to the data economy in previously unimaginable ways for the many thousands of developers, storage providers, entrepreneurs and other network participants from all over the world. For example, Waterlily, a prompt-based AI tool that generates images in the style of specific artists, uses tokens to directly reward the creator of the original AI training data.
The launch of FVM solidifies Filecoin’s position as the Layer-1 blockchain uniquely poised to power an open data economy. Many leading web3 projects have announced plans to use, support, or integrate with FVM to upgrade their services.”
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“Coinbase is considering setting up a crypto-trading platform overseas and is discussing the move with institutional clients, Bloomberg reported. A decision hasn’t been taken on the location for such a trading platform, which comes as U.S. regulators are cracking down on crypto.
As the exchange is looking to increase global crypto adoption, it assesses geographic options and is meeting with government officials in high-bar regulatory jurisdictions.
Coinbase isn’t alone. Several other U.S. crypto firms are looking to find new banking partners in other jurisdictions. Sygnum in Switzerland and Bank Frick in Lichtenstein told CoinDesk they’ve received an increasing number of requests to open accounts from offshore companies, including those based in the U.S.”
“The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation denied it would require any purchaser of Signature Bank to divest its crypto activities.
The acquirer will tell the FDIC ‘what assets and liabilities from the failed bank it is willing to take,’ the spokesperson said, citing the agency’s resolution handbook. The spokesperson also referred to two joint statements published by the FDIC, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve, one of which states that banks are “neither prohibited nor discouraged” from providing services to any sector.
The receivership does not end until all the bank’s assets are sold and all the claims against the bank are addressed, and the acquirer decides the conditions of their bid.”
See Also: Former NY Regulator: Crypto Isn’t the Reason Why Signature Bank Was Closed
See Also: SVB Collapse Shows the Rot in U.S. Banking and Dollars
“Following the receipt of final authorization from Hong Kong’s SFC, it will manage the STO platform using the brand name “CS-Pro.“ This platform will be a pioneering development in Hong Kong, according to Signum.
Recently, Hong Kong has displayed much interest in becoming a crypto hub, investing heavily in supporting the potential of technologies like Web3. Under the upcoming licensing system scheduled to begin in June, the SFC mandated that digital currency exchanges submit license applications that would let everyday investors trade specific high-capitalization tokens.”
The Disrupt 