The FTX crash continues to affect crypto as Silvergate joins the ranks of FTX-related organizations taking a fall.
As March began, many had been hoping for Bitcoin’s bullish streak to continue for the time being, even though historically Bitcoin’s performance has remained mediocre in the month of March. As of March 3, however, Bitcoin’s price has taken a downturn as repercussions of the FTX fiasco of 2022 continue to shake up the crypto space.
As the crypto-focused Silvergate bank’s less than well capitalized status pushes investors under another wave of uncertainty, BTC had fallen by 5% in a single hour at the outset of March 3, recording its lowest in the past two weeks.
What happened with Silvergate? The FTX collapse had already caused the bank to take a major hit at the end of 2022, and the FUD to follow recorded a loss of about $950 million for the bank in the year. As the bank laid off a good number of its staff for damage control, in January the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced an investigation into the bank’s ties with FTX. The two events combined made the bank’s shares drop to a point of no return.
Now, Silvergate has delayed its annual 10-K report submission to the SEC, and many big names in the crypto industry have consequently cut off all ties with the organization. This has evidently caused much pain to the Bitcoin bulls- along with hopefuls in other major cryptos like ETH- who were already defending a newfound and yet unsteady support around $23,000.
BTC/USD 1 day chart
As of March 3, 2023, BTC/USD is trading around $22,400. Bitcoin is currently at a point below both its 20-day EMA ($23,300) and 50-day SMA ($22,800). As $22,000 currently acts as a new support for BTC, some analysts are expecting the crypto markets to recover quickly once the inflated sense of FUD passes, while others yet expect a further retracement.