LONDON: Bitcoin stayed steady on Thursday near its lowest point. It is said to be the outcome since mid-February after the US crypto-focused bank Silvergate said it would voluntarily close.
Silvergate Capital Corp said on Wednesday that it was going to close and liquidate on its own. After FTX suddenly went bankrupt last year, investors rushed to withdraw around $8 billion from the California-based company. Said company was a key banking partner for crypto businesses.
Bitcoin was last worth $21,624, which was 0.4% less than before. On Wednesday, it fell 2.2% to a 3-1/2 week low of $21,590.
Analysts said that the closing of Silvergate didn’t have much of an effect, which was what most people expected.
Several of the bank’s partners, like the big cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc, cut ties with Silvergate last week. Others, like Binance, said that they hadn’t lost any assets at Silvergate.
“Bitcoin investors have had some time to think about this news. They are also paying much more attention to how the economy as a whole is doing,” said James Butterfill. James is in charge of research at digital asset manager CoinShares.
“Even though the Silvergate news is bad, the price of bitcoin is still going up a little bit because the bond market is getting more worried about how further interest rate hikes might hurt the US economy.”
So far this year, Bitcoin has gone up by more than 30%, making up for some of the almost 65% it lost in 2022 after a string of high-profile crypto company failures.
