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First Citizens to Buy Silicon Valley Bank: Bloomberg

SVB, a bankrupt lender, was the bank for some big crypto firms, including Circle Internal Financial.

First Citizens BancShares (FCNCO), the parent company of First Citizens Bank, a midsize regional bank, has agreed to buy Silicon Valley Bank, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing a statement from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

SVB Financial Group, the parent of Silicon Valley Bank, filed for bankruptcy protection on March 17.

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While Silicon Valley Bank didn't provide fiat on-ramps to crypto exchanges, like Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank did, a number of key crypto companies such as Circle Internet Financial banked there. Circle’s USDC stablecoin fell from its $1 peg for a few days after the company announced that $3.3 billion of its deposits were at Silicon Valley Bank.

In an interview on CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” earlier this month, Brian Brooks, the former acting head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, said that the U.S. government is actively trying to choke off crypto’s access to the banking sector, but some crypto stakeholders have said that this banking crisis will strengthen crypto in the long term.

UPDATE: (Monday March 27, 05:35 UTC) Updates headline and lead paragraph to say deal has been reached.

Sam Reynolds

Sam Reynolds is a senior reporter based in Asia. Sam was part of the CoinDesk team that won the 2023 Gerald Loeb award in the breaking news category for coverage of FTX's collapse. Prior to CoinDesk, he was a reporter with Blockworks and a semiconductor analyst with IDC.

Sam Reynolds