The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the former holder of the collapsed crypto-friendly Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), has announced that SVB was partially sold to the U.S.-based banking giant First Citizens BancShares. The deal includes the sale of $72B of SVB’s assets at a discount of $16.5B. More: - Another $90B in securities and other assets were excluded from the acquisition and will remain in the receivership of FDIC for disposition.
- FDIC will receive $500M of equity appreciation rights in the stock of First Citizens.
- The regulator estimates that the bank’s failure would cost around $20B to the government’s deposit insurance fund.
- SVB’s 17 former branches have opened under the name of First Citizens as of March 27, and the depositors automatically became customers of the new holder.
- First Citizens has more than $100B in assets and over 500 branches across 22 states, including its primary subsidiary First Citizens Bank.
- California-based SVB was shut down by the state’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation on March 10, in the same week that saw the consecutive collapses of Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank.
- SVB’s parent company, SVB Financial Group, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on March 17.
Zoom Out: - SVB, previously the 16th largest bank in the U.S., provided banking services to several crypto and tech startups.
- The 40-year-old bank’s collapse marked the largest bank failure in U.S. history since Washington Mutual in 2008.
- Earlier in March, Signature Bank was sold to Flagstar Bank by the FDIC with its $38.4B of non-crypto-related deposits and $12.9B in loans.
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In a recent blog post, crypto exchange Coinbase has urged developers to create stablecoins pegged to the inflation rate on its new blockchain, Base. The platform said exploring the potential of stablecoins became more important than ever following the U.S. banking crisis triggered by the consecutive collapses of crypto-friendly Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), and Signature Bank in March. More: - The inflation-pegged stablecoins, which Coinbase calls flatcoins, will track the inflation rate to preserve their value.
- Coinbase also pointed out that it is open to other forms of flatcoins that are not pegged to fiat currencies but rather bridge the gap between pegged coins and volatile crypto assets.
- The popular crypto exchange added that developers should focus on areas like creating trust and safety on blockchains and decentralized finance (DeFi) apps.
- The firm launched its Ethereum-powered Layer-2 blockchain network, Base, in February.
- Base mainly aims to form a secure, faster, and low-cost area for developers to create decentralized apps (dApps) on blockchains and Layer-2 networks.
- Following the Base network’s launch, Coinbase also announced a fund to support early-stage projects on its blockchain.
Zoom Out: - Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose value is pegged to another reference asset, usually a fiat currency.
- Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), and Binance USD (BUSD) are all among the most popular stablecoins with higher market caps.
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G7 countries plan to toughen international crypto regulations, according to a recent report from Kyodo News that cited sources familiar with the issue. The stricter rules will focus on boosting transparency and consumer protection. More: - Prior to a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers in mid-May, G7 negotiations on crypto regulation will pick up momentum.
- This year's G7 summit in Hiroshima will be hosted by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
- A leaders' proclamation from the G7 member states will outline the shared goals for stricter crypto rules in the summit.
- G7 consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S., along with the European Union (EU) as a non-enumerated member.
Zoom Out: - Last month, G20 countries also discussed risks related to crypto in a meeting.
- A synthesis document outlining global crypto rules is expected to be presented in September this year when India completes its G20 leadership.
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NFT trader Brandon Riley has burned his CryptoPunk #685 NFT, which he purchased for 77 Ether (ETH) two weeks ago, by accidentally sending it to a burn address. The NFT was worth nearly $129,000 when Riley bought it. More: - Riley initially planned to wrap the NFT as a new digital token and post it to NFTfi.com to earn an annual yield of around 7%.
- However, using an online guide, Riley sent his NFT to a burn address by inputting the wrong address and permanently removed it from circulation.
- A Twitter user named NFToga said the instructions in the guide used by Riley were updated after the burned NFT and started warning traders not to send their NFTs to wallets formatted as burn addresses.
- Riley asked Yuga Labs, the firm behind the CryptoPunk NFTs, whether he could buy the first version of CryptoPunk #685 released before a bug was found in the collection’s smart contract.
- Yuga Labs has yet to answer Riley’s question or make any official statement.
Zoom Out: - Burn addresses refer to the inaccessible digital wallets without a private key to send cryptocurrencies and NFTs to never be traded again, permanently removing them from circulation.
- Yuga Labs’ CryptoPunk NFTs are one of the most expensive NFT collections in the industry, with its $1B of market cap, and the cheapest NFT in the collection is worth around $109,000.
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Fast-food giant Burger King has started accepting payments with crypto, including Bitcoin (BTC), at its Paris locations using Instpower, a power bank providing bank charging services. The move was considered a major step toward making crypto mainstream as a means of payment for goods and services. More: - Instpower uses the crypto payment services of Alchemy Pay and Binance Pay to make crypto payments possible.
- The machine has customers at more than 14,000 sites worldwide.
- Burger King previously offered crypto as a payment option at several other locations in different parts of the world, including the Netherlands, Venezuela, and the U.S.
- The fast-food giant's Russian branch also launched a cryptocurrency dubbed WhopperCoin as part of a loyalty program in 2017.
Zoom Out: - Burger King's rivals that took steps toward the Web3 area through exploring NFTs and metaverse include KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and McDonald's.
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E-commerce giant Alibaba Group’s cloud-computing arm, Alibaba Cloud, has announced that it will launch a blockchain lab in Japan in April. The lab will aim to help game developers identify further commercial aspects of the Web3 field. More: - The collaborators of the lab include Tokyu Real Estate Co., Ltd., the game and VR content studio Skeleton Crew Studio, and Japan’s largest indie game event BitSummit.
- Japanese game developers will be able to meet and learn about blockchain technology in Alibaba Cloud’s new blockchain lab.
- In its initial phase, the lab will be available only for a select group of customers and hackathon participants who developed joint projects with Alibaba Cloud.
- In the lab, the partner firms’ engineers will also give onsite technical assistance using their specialty in blockchain technology and Alibaba Cloud’s services.
Zoom Out: - In December last year, Alibaba Cloud also announced that it would offer a blockchain node service in Japan within Q1 2023.
- The service is expected to reduce the time spent on operation and maintenance for developers building and deploying new products on blockchain networks.
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- Do Kwon, the co-founder of collapsed Terra ecosystem, reportedly plans to appeal to the Montenegrin court's decision to extend detention time for up to 30 days.
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 |  | Doga is a tech and science editor who has been writing news for nearly 10 years. She worked for leading tech platforms and mainstrem media channels as an editor and presenter throughout his career. Then, she carried her know-how to more than one platform. She is a part-time cat lover and binge-watcher, and also fond of science, space, and emerging tech. She always has a story to tell. She is a bit addict to the laughter and -unfortunately- the '90s culture. |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
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