Another week, another bank in trouble

Another week, another bank in trouble – this time, over in Europe with the 167-year-old AAA institution of Credit Suisse. Over the weekend, the regulator swiftly stepped in and brokered a deal, with UBS buying the bank for almost $3bn, mostly wiping out the shareholders but entirely wiping out the “AT1” bondholders.
 
Ultimately, banking relies on trust, and when that trust disappears things can quickly go wrong. Bitcoin was created in the wake of the 2008 banking crisis to create a solution to this trust problem. It is perhaps then no surprise that the larger cryptocurrencies have been soaring over the past week, with BTC up around 15% and ETH up 5%. Indeed, BTC is up more than 40% since the start of the Silicon Valley Bank failure. Some people have particularly lofty targets, with the ex-CTO of Coinbase making a bet that BTC will reach $1m in the next 3 months….
 
Further down the market cap table, prices have not been as resilient, with CoinShares reporting that there have been weekly outflows from crypto in the past 6 weeks, possibly as investors dash for cash. If investors continue to see troubles ahead, could more funds flow out of the meme stocks and into the more established tokens?
 
Certainly, the industry continues to eye growth, despite the US appearing to be pushing it away, with a reported 80 firms looking at setting up in Hong Kong.