Shares in Deutsche Bank – Germany’s largest lender – began to crash on Friday as financial industry fears continue to spread following a string of global bank failures this month. 
Meanwhile, the cost of default insurance on the bank’s potential collapse has risen to four-year highs.
Is Deutsche Bank Next?
Deutsche Bank (DBK) shares fell from 9.06 EUR to 8.25 EUR on Friday – an 11% decline on the day, and 26% descent from a month prior. The bank’s slide was coupled by declines in neighboring European bank stocks, including Commerzbank (-5.6%) and Societe Generale (-6.48%).
The fall began to accelerate after the price of Deutsche Bank’s five-year Credit Default Swaps began surging on Friday above 220 basis points (bps). That’s up from 142 bps just two days prior, and its

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen suggested that her department might be willing to further backstop bank deposits if needed, only one day after seemingly ruling out the possibility.
Her comments were followed by brief fluctuations in bank stocks, which then continued their downward daily trend.
Are Deposits Backstopped or Not?
In her prepared testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Wednesday, Yellen reiterated comments from the day prior explaining that the government’s recent actions were to ensure the safety of American deposits. 
However, she removed a key line from Wednesday’s testimony, asserting “the U.S. banking system is safe and sound” – now inserting a statement that the Treasury “would be prepared to take additional actions if warranted.”
“As I

Republican congressman Tom Emmer has introduced more crypto-related legislation – this time to help blockchain developers from unreasonable financial reporting requirements. 
The new bill may help to correct controversial language within the Biden Administration’s infrastructure bill in late 2021, which could theoretically label a swath of the blockchain network participants as digital asset “brokers.”
Clearing the Air on Crypto Reporting
Shared over Twitter on Thursday, Emmer’s bill seeks to provide a “safe harbor” for blockchain developers and blockchain service providers who don’t directly control the private keys for accessing users’ assets. 
The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act states that such parties should not be treated as money transmitters or financial

Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution Arbitrum has initiated its long-awaited token airdrop, bringing protocol governance rights to the entire community. 
The governance token, ARB, trades for $1.38 at writing time – falling significantly from when the airdrop began. 
ARB spiked to $8.67 apiece following its airdrop at 9:05 am ET, before quickly plummeting to nearly $1.00 within an hour, according to data from CoinGecko.
Heavy traffic at the time of the airdrop caused the claim website to go down. 
Applications to become a delegate for Arbitrum ended on Wednesday, but those eligible for the airdrop still have 6 months to claim their tokens. “Gas fees will be quite high, and there will be server congestion,” added Arbitrum. 
As of Thursday, 12.75% of the total ARB supply was

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is prepping for official enforcement action against Coinbase – America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange – for selling unregistered securities. 
The agency issued a Wells Notice against the exchange on Wednesday, following a slew of other investigations and lawsuits launched against Coinbase’s competitors in recent months. 
Coinbase VS SEC
In an SEC filing, Coinbase explained that the Wells Notice warned of violations of Federal Securities Laws, including the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and  Securities Act of 1933.
Based on discussions with SEC staff, the company believes the SEC is taking issue with Coinbase’s primary spot exchange business, its staking service Coinbase Earn, Coinbase Prime, and Coinbase Wallet. 
Though a

The Council fo Economic Advisors showed outright disregard for the purported benefits of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the President’s Economic Report released on Tuesday. 
The report claimed that cryptocurrencies lack fundamental value, and also do not “act as effective alternatives to money.”
Crypto: Expectations VS Reality
The White House report included two dedicated sections pertaining to digital assets: one titled “The Perceived Appeal of Crypto Assets,” and the other titled “The Reality of Crypto Assets.”
The first section acknowledges some of the most commonly cited use cases of Bitcoin: its potential as an inflation hedge, ability to enable fast digital payments, and power to increase financial inclusion. However, the latter section disputed all of those

Despite fears surrounding the US banking sector, the Fed has followed through on its plans to quell inflation with an interest rate hike of 25 basis points on Wednesday.
The decision notably affected the price of Bitcoin, which pumped $300 within 5 minutes of the announcement.
Bitcoin started the day trading at $28,216, before rising to $28,417 ahead of FOMC. 
The asset then broke upwards to $28,752 following the interest rate decision. It trades for $28,480 at writing time. 
According to Coinglass, there were $19.64 million in liquidations within the past 1 hour following the announcement. 
The decision takes the Fed’s policy interest rate up to a range of 4.75% to 5%. 
CPI inflation in February clocked in at 6%, which the Fed seeks to bring back to its 2% target by

Jared Grey – the “Head Chef” (CEO) of the automated market maker Sushi Swap – is attempting to establish a $3 million legal defense fund after being subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 
Grey declined to comment further on the ongoing investigations but said he and Sushi were cooperating with the agency. 
In a blog post on Tuesday, Grey said that the new Sushi Dao Legal Defense Fund would cover “reasonable attorney’s fees” for core contributors who have been active since the ratification of Sushi 2.0. 
Funds for the DAO will be collected through a combination of Kanpai fees (50%) Grants (35%) and sales of the SUSHI token (15%). SUSHI is down 2.34% on the day. 
The $3 million USDT will be held in a new multisig, and its funds will be made available to

Former Coinbase CTO and venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan has many skeptical of his latest prediction that Bitcoin will moon to $1 million within 90 days. What could he really be after with such a bullish public bet?
On Tuesday, Balaji explained that his $2 million gamble isn’t about making money, but about settling an “ideological matter” surrounding U.S. dollar inflation.
The Printing is Coming
In a tweet response to angel investor Jason Calcanis on Tuesday, Balaji clarified that last week’s bet was not initially proposed by him, but by James Medlock on Twitter. Medlock, who was surprised to see someone take up the offer, later called it “the most profitable shitpost in history.”
“I believe Medlock will agree that this is an ideological bet, like the Simon-Ehrlich

Former Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker believes the Fed should – and will – remain firm in hiking interest rates at its upcoming March meeting, and subsequent meetings thereafter.
Despite a series of bank failures this month that was partly induced by rising rates, the ex-chair believes more will be necessary to combat inflation.
The Inflation Fight Continues
In an interview with Andrew Sorkin from Squawk Box, Lacker said that the Fed should “go ahead with a 25 basis point increase” when the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) concludes its meeting on Wednesday, to display conviction to its anti-inflation cause. 
Such a hike would be in line with market expectations, though the CME Fedwatch tool shows markets are pricing in an 18.8% chance of no hike

Strike CEO Jack Mallers believes Bitcoin is primed to pump following the Federal Reserve’s $300 billion injection into the banking sector last week. 
Mallers predicts that the US dollar is entering a new era of persistently high inflation, which will only benefit Bitcoin. 
Is Higher Inflation Inevitable?
Speaking with CNBC, co-anchor Kelly Evans asked the CEO why people should expect Bitcoin to moonshot following a banking crisis, the likes of which have historically been deflationary periods. She cited former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, who predicted last week that the dollar would hyperinflate and send Bitcoin to $1 million within the next 90 days. 
Mallers’s argument was simple: Bitcoin is a fixed supply money, whereas the dollar is not, meaning Bitcoin will

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is the next Republican politician to take a firm stance against Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) in the United States. 
The governor recently voiced support for a ban on CBDCs within the state, blasting such technologies as tools of financial surveillance. 
Standing Against CBDCs
In a speech shared over Twitter on Monday, DeSantis recalled President Biden’s digital asset executive order in March 2022, which called on government agencies to explore the creation of a CBDC. 
“It provides the government with a direct view over all consumer activities,” said the governor, noting that CBDCs are “different” from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
“What the central bank digital currency is all about is surveilling Americans, and controlling

As Bitcoin returns to a 9-month high above $28,000, a growing number of on-chain signs show the asset may be entering an early bull market. 
On Monday, blockchain analytics firm Glassnode said the Bitcoin market “appears to be shifting gears” amid turmoil within the traditional banking system. 
Reclaiming Momentum
According to the firm’s weekly report, Bitcoin’s monthly average transaction count reached 309.5k/day this week – its highest level since Bitcoin surged to $64,000 in April 2021. Less than 12.2% of all days experience more trades than this.
Meanwhile, over 122,000 new entities (a best estimate for unique new users) have been appearing on chain every day, which is higher than nearly 90% of all other days. Most of those days were concentrated around Bitcoin’s price

With the largest crypto-supportive banks in the U.S. crumbling at the seams, industry firms appear to be retreating to Switzerland for a financial lifeline. 
Crypto-focused banks in the region are reporting higher traffic after Silvergate, Signature Bank, and Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) all effectively failed over the past two weeks. 
Where to Crypto Firms Go?
SEBA Bank managing director Yves Longchamp told Reuters via email that the bank has experienced a “pronounced uptick” in traffic from the United States, according to a report published Monday. Representatives from the bank’s Singapore, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, and Switzerland offices also noted more interest from American clients.
“Crypto firms and other money managers have already started the onboarding process and many

Argentina’s annual inflation rate surpassed 100% in February, marking a 30-year high since the nation’s hyperinflationary period in 1991. 
Meanwhile, Bitcoin has appreciated against the Argentine Peso by 20% over the past year, despite posting a 34% drop against US dollars over the same period. 
Government data released on Tuesday showed a Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase of 6.6% across the month alone, alongside a 13.1% year-to-date rise.
The rapid debasement of the nation’s currency can be felt in real-time by its citizens. Irene Devita, 74, told the Guardian that her community is struggling to afford anything as they endure surging costs that rise weekly. 

“The other day I came and asked for three tangerines, two oranges, two bananas, and half a kilo of tomatoes.

El Salvador’s government has launched another initiative repping its support for Bitcoin adoption and development of the broader network.This time, it’s a Bitcoin/ lightning developer training program funded by VC firm Fulgur and stablecoin issuer Tether. 
As announced by El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office on Wednesday, the “CUBO+” program is an advanced Bitcoin engineering program that is several months long and offers credit and potential placement for those qualifying for the inaugural Plan B fellowship. 
Plan B was an initiative the Bitcoin Office launched in Lugano, Switzerland last year to facilitate Bitcoin adoption. The city has already made Bitcoin and USDT de facto legal tender, and enabled BTC acceptance with over 150 merchants in the city. 
“The Plan B fellowship

Markets are starting to price in an incoming Fed pivot as bank instability forces central banks to protect the financial system.Analysis from CryptoQuant analyst Cristian Palusi suggests that the liquidity crises now plaguing commercial banks may be a “long-awaited buy signal” for Bitcoin. 
Banks Down, Bitcoin Up
In a post published on Thursday, Palusci noted that the implied federal funds’ policy rates have severely shortened their time frame for when they think the central bank will first cut rates again, from Q1 2024 to June 2023. 
Meanwhile, gold and Bitcoin are on the rise: the precious metal surged to nearly $2000 as of Friday, while its oft-considered digital successor rose to another 9-month high of $27,000. 
“One of the elements that represented a clear buy signal

BitMEX co-founder and crypto-essayist Arthur Hayes published a lengthy blog post on Thursday breaking down the Federal Reserve’s new program to protect the banking system – and what it means for Bitcoin. 
The initiative titled the “Bank Term Funding Program” is regarded by Hayes as a “repackaged” form of Yield Curve Control (YCC) that will trigger another bull market for Bitcoin. 
QE Infinity
Hayes began by reviewing the macroeconomic backdrop since 2020, from the period of heavy covid related stimulus to the subsequent tightening of interest rates throughout 2022. The ensuing crunch in financial assets crushed bankers’ bond portfolios, and a higher fed funds rate incentivized a rapid withdrawal of deposits from small banks toward higher-yielding money market funds. 
This

Coinbase, America’s largest crypto exchange, is reportedly in talks to set up a new digital asset trading platform overseas that can offer access to global clients. 
The discussions, which remain confidential, have yet to establish a precise location for the global marketplace, three people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
However, the exchange has already made contact with market makers about how to connect to it. 
“International expansion is going to continue to be a very core part of how we operate,” said Coinbase Chief Operating Officer Emilie Choi during an earnings call last month. 
The talks occur as regulators forced Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank – two of the nation’s biggest crypto banking partners – to close their doors over the weekend,

A consortium of 11 major U.S. banks has agreed to invest $30 billion into First Republic Bank – a regional US bank that showed signs of destabilization this week following Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)’s collapse. 
The uninsured deposits come from Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of New York Mellon, PNC Bank, State Street, Truist, and U.S. Bank.
As reported by Yahoo Finance, the former four banks each contributed $5 billion each, with Goldman and Morgan Stanley depositing $2.5 billion each. 
“This support from America’s largest banks reflects confidence in First Republic and its ability to continue to provide unwavering exceptional service to its clients and communities,” said First Republic in a press release

European regulators and policy experts are dismayed by how American watchdogs handled the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last weekend.Certain policymakers take issue with the Fed’s “systemic risk exception,” which they believe could undermine the credibility of banking globally. 
Critiques of the Bailout
According to the Financial Times, a senior eurozone official said the Federal Reserve showed “total and utter incompetence” in its response to SVB’s failure, turning its back on years of “long and boring meetings” crafting an international rulebook to end bank bailouts. 
While the Fed, Treasury Department, and FDIC insist that there was no “bailout,” critics say otherwise. While the agencies’ backstop plan did not reimburse bank investors or shareholders, depositors were

After a months-long wait since the Merge, Ethereum developers have set a target date for the network’s highly anticipated Shanghai hard fork. 
The upgrade will enable the network’s stakers to withdraw their locked Ether (ETH) for the first time since December 2020. 
Withdrawing Staked ETH
During a recorded call among core developers on Thursday, devs set April 12 as their target date for “Shapella” – the dual upgrade enabling ETH withdrawals. Shapella is a combination of the words Shanghai and Capella, changes to Ethereum’s execution and consensus layer respectively. 
Once devs vote on and confirm the upgrade via GitHub, April 12 will be set in stone – a month’s delay from their initial target date of March 2023. To be precise, popular developer Tim Beiko tweeted on

America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange is expecting a flood of staking withdrawal requests after Ethereum developers enable the functionality next month. 
While providing details about how the upgrade will impact the business on Wednesday, Coinbase said it could take “weeks to months” for unstaking requests to be fully processed.
Shapella is Coming
In a blog post on the matter, Coinbase explained that the upcoming Shanghai and Capella upgrades (collectively known as Shapella) will allow Ethereum users to unstake their Ether (ETH) for the first time since the Beacon chain launched in 2020. 
While Ethereum’s execution layer officially “merged” with its beacon chain in September 2022, stakers holdings remained locked up. This has created a temporary situation in which

Credit Suisse shares plummeted to another all-time low of just 1.65 CHF ($1.79) on Wednesday after its largest shareholder – Saudi National Bank (SNB) – said it would not be able to purchase more shares of the company.
The 30% drop has been coupled with widespread fear that Credit Suisse could be on the brink of default.
Another Bank Run?
Saudi National Bank is barred from investing more into the struggling bank due to regulatory constraints, SNB chairman Ammar Al Khudairy told Reuters on Wednesday. It currently holds a 9.88% stake in the firm, just 12 basis points below its 10% ownership limit. 
The news only adds to widespread industry fears pushing bank stocks down this week, following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last Friday. After American bank stocks

Bitcoin soared to a high of $26,514 on Tuesday, up 30% since crashing below $20,000 on Friday.
What caused the king of crypto to rebound in such a spectacular fashion? Here are three possible reasons: 
Silicon Valley Bank’s Bailout
Much of Bitcoin’s price trouble last week stemmed from uncertainty surrounding the crypto industry’s biggest banking partners going bust. Those partners include Silvergate, Signature Bank, and Silicon Valley Bank – the latter of which was seized by the FDIC after a $42 billion bank run on Thursday. 
The event – which both crunched Bitcoin and destabilized USDC – was addressed by the Federal Reserve on Sunday, when it promised to fully bail out all of the bank’s depositors. The announcement was a major relief to a slew of crypto firms with

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire spoke on Tuesday recapping the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and USDC drama from his company’s perspective. 
According to Allaire, all of the company’s cash reserves are now stored with Bank of New York Melon.
Rescuing Crypto From Banking
During the interview, Allaire said his company was prepared to use Circle’s own corporate funds to backstop its underwater cash reserves before banks opened on Monday. The firm held $3.3 billion with SVB, which it briefly lost after the VC-banking giant was claimed by regulators on Friday.
“Fortunately, we didn’t need to do that,” said Allaire. “We’ve moved all of our assets to Bank of New York Melon, as well as held in the Circle Reserve Fund, which is short-term T-bills managed by Blackrock. 
Circle’s $39 billion

Both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) are reportedly investigating the now-collapsed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) after depositors to the bank were bailed out by regulators on Sunday. 
The separate investigations will both examine the stock sales of SVB’s executives moments before the bank collapsed.
The agencies’ investigations are still at a preliminary stage and will not necessarily lead to allegations or charges, according to the Wall Street Journal. 
Similar investigations are common following the failure of financial institutions and crypto-native firms alike. The SEC and CFTC were quick to launch investigations into FTX shortly after the firm froze withdrawals in November, before laying charges against the firm in December.

Barney Frank – a board member for Signature Bank and former member of U.S. Congress – believes the government had “no objective reason” to force his company into receivership on Friday.
Rather, he interpreted the action as an attempt by regulators to “send a very strong anti-crypto message,” throughout the country. 
Why Close Down Signature?
In a phone interview with CNBC, Frank said that Signature Bank’s customers withdrew $10 billion from the firm in a bank-run style panic after Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was forced to close its doors on Friday. 
Just two days later, the FDIC took similar action against Signature Bank, while the Federal Reserve announced that it would entirely bail out depositors for both banks. The firms’ management teams have been swept out, and

While the Fed may have bailed out Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)’s depositors on Monday, the market’s uncertainty surrounding the entire banking sector still loom large. 
Trading for multiple banking organizations was halted on Monday due to share price volatility, much like SVB last Friday. 
According to Nasdaq Trader, trading for Charles Schwab – a multinational financial services company with $7.8 trillion in assets under management – was halted on the NYSE at 9:49 am EDT on Monday. The company’s stock is down 18% on the day. 
Meanwhile, First Republic Bank has dropped by a record 76% since Monday’s opening, before it too was halted at 10:43 am EDT. The bank’s stock was already placed under massive pressure alongside SVB and Signature Bank late last week. 
Other halted

Yet another crypto-friendly bank has been forced to shut its doors: Signature Bank – the bank numerous crypto firms retreated to after Silvergate revealed operational difficulties earlier this month. 
As with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the U.S. government has agreed to fully bail out the firm’s depositors as part of a “systemic risk exception.”
In a joint statement from the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the parties clarified that no losses associated with the bank would be borne by taxpayers – just like SVB. 

“Shareholders and certain unsecured debtholders will not be protected,” read the statement. “Senior management has also been removed.”

The Fed said that the measures taken are to strengthen public confidence in the