Silicon Valley Bank contagion: Affected crypto companies include BlockFi, Circle, Avalanche

As the fallout from the spectacular collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) begins, many crypto companies have already signaled their exposure to the bank, which has long maintained a reputation as one of the most prominent lenders to tech startups in the world.

The banks closing Friday by the California Department of Financial Protection marked the second largest bank failure in US history after the failure of Washington Mutual during the 2008 financial crisis. Silicon Valley Bank reported $212 billion in assets last quarter.

The stock (SIVB) began spiraling late Wednesday after rumors circulated that the institution was seeking a buyout after failing to raise sufficient capital to cover its liabilities. In the hours and days that followed, many venture capital funds reportedly advised their clients to withdraw funds from the bank, which held its shares. stopped Friday morning of Nasdaq.

Although it was venture capital firms and technology startups that were hit the hardest by SVB, many crypto companies have also disclosed their exposure to the bank.

Here’s a running list of the crypto firms caught in the crosshairs after SVB’s collapse, along with those that have publicly claimed they avoided the damage.

Decrypt will continue to update this list as more companies disclose their exposure.

Crypto companies that had money in SVB

BlockFi

Failed crypto lender BlockFi, which filed for bankruptcy in November in the wake of FTX’s collapse, has $227 million in funds held at SVB, according to documents filed Friday related to BlockFi’s bankruptcy proceedings. These funds are reportedly not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC) as they are in a money market fund, which in itself could constitute a violation of bankruptcy law.

BlockFi first stopped withdrawals just days after the implosion of crypto exchange FTX. The lender had previously been bailed out by FTX with a $250 million revolving credit line last June.

Circle

Circle, issuer of the world’s second-largest stablecoin USDC, announced on Friday that part of the cash reserves used to back USDC and peg its value to the US dollar were held at Silicon Valley Bank.

The company said in a statement on Friday that SVB was one of six banks relied on to manage USDC’s cash reserves, but maintains that USDC will be able to continue operating normally.

Stablecoins like USDC are cryptocurrencies backed by and pegged to the value of real assets. They are intended to serve as a solid intermediary between traditional finance and more volatile crypto markets; USDC, with a market cap of $42.17 billion, is the second most used stablecoin in the world. 25% of the assets backing the USDC, which purports to be fully collateralized, are cash, according to Circle.

Last week, Circle cut ties with collapsed crypto-friendly bank Silvergate, which shut down on Wednesday. Circle had also used Silvergate to hold cash reserves up until that point.

Panther

Crypto-focused venture capital firm Pantera may have an unknown exposure to SVB’s collapse. As recently as last month, the firm counted the failed bank among just three managers of its private funds, according to a Feb. 3 SEC filing.

Pantera counts among the largest crypto-focused VC firms in the world; just last year it raised $1.3 billion for a fund that focuses exclusively on blockchain-based projects.

Avalanche

The Avalanche Foundation, which backs the Avalanche blockchain, announced Friday night that it has “just over” $1.6 million in exposure to Silicon Valley Bank.

Avalanche’s original token, AVAX, currently has a market capitalization of $4.84 billion.

Yuga Labs

Yuga Labs, the $4 billion company behind the dominant NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (among other projects), is exposed to SVB. Yuga co-founder Greg Solano said Friday that the company has “super limited exposure” to the failed bank, although Yuga has yet to confirm exactly how much.

Solano said the amount “does not affect our operations or plans in any way.”

Proof

Proof, another leader in NFTs, may have been hit harder. The Web3 project created by Digg co-founder Kevin Rose, which is behind the leading NFT aggregator Moonbirds, released a statement on Friday confirming that the company has the cash of Silicon Valley Bank.

“Proof holds cash at SVB, but… We have fortunately diversified our holdings across ETH, stablecoins, as well as fiat,” the company tweeted on Friday.

Proof has not yet disclosed how much cash it has tied up with SVB. While the company admitted that SVB’s collapse “sucks”, it also insisted that the potential loss would not affect the security of its customer assets, or Proof’s roadmap.

Nova Labs

Nova Labs, the startup behind decentralized network and internet provider Helium, disclosed exposure to SVB late Friday.

“Nova Labs has some $ stuck in SVB, but the vast majority is in other institutions,” said Nova Labs CEO and Helium co-founder Amir Haleem.

Crypto companies that claim no exposure to SVB

Numerous crypto companies have also rushed to declare their lack of exposure to Silicon Valley Bank, in an effort to head off any further panic.

Tether, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT, announced on Friday that it had no exposure to SVB’s collapse. USDT has a market cap of $72.38 billion.

Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of the Solana blockchain, claimed that neither Solana Labs nor the Solana Foundation had any exposure to SVB.

Ryan Wyatt, President of Polygon Labs, the company behind the Ethereum scaling solution Polygonsimilarly announced that no Polygon affiliates or foundations had any exposure to SVB.

Other companies that announced no exposure to SVB on Friday include Obscuritythe emerging NFT marketplace, Leadcrypto lending platform, crypto wallet The Phantomand DeLabsthe company behind top NFT collections DeGods and Y00ts.