The March 10th collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) sparked FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) throughout the crypto community, prompting many to return to crypto roots, namely, reviving the Bitcoin (BTC) white paper published just weeks after the 2008 Lehman Brothers meltdown. There is an entire generation of builders who only know about Lehman and the financial crisis and dismiss Bitcoin. Now though, their eyes are wide open, said Messari Founder and CEO Ryan Selkis. Some attribute this disaster to rising interest rates within the U.S. Over the last year, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate to more than 4.5%, the highest level since 2007. In the United States, the inflation rate was 6.4% in January. The failure of Silicon Valley Bank has also impacted numerous crypto and tech companies. SVB was actually about to close its doors when Circle, the issuer of USD Coin (USDC), initiated a wire transfer to withdraw its funds. However, Circle revealed that it was unable to withdraw $3.3 billion of its $40 billion in SVB reserves, resulting in a sell-off and the price of the stablecoin falling below its $1 peg. Other stablecoins such as BUSD and USDT have maintained their 1:1 peg with the U.S Dollar, for the time being at least.
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