Crypto moguls spark wild speculation over whether they could buy Silicon Valley Bank amid Bitcoin price chaos

by James · March 12, 2023

Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVBVB) sudden collapse this week has thrown the crypto market into chaos — even after a former regulator warned of looming bitcoin and crypto price “investor carnage.”

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Regulators and Federal Reserve officials are scrambling to prevent the tech startup-focused bank’s shock implosion from turning into a full-blown financial meltdown.

Amid the chaos, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO of the world’s largest bitcoin and crypto exchange Binance, suggested now might be the time to buy a bank while Tesla billionaire Elon Musk said he is “open to the idea” of buying Twitter. Silicon Valley Bank.

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Tesla billionaire Elon Musk has both floated the idea that they might buy Silicon Valley Bank.

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“Is it time yet? Not sure,” CZ posted to Twitter alongside a link to a November 2022 report in which he said Binance could potentially buy a bank to bridge traditional finance, bitcoin and crypto.

“There are people who have certain types of local licenses, traditional banking, payment service providers, even banks. We are looking at these things,” CZ said during last year’s Web Summit conference, it was reported by Bloomberg. “We want to be the bridge between crypto and the traditional financial world.”

Meanwhile, Musk, whose electric car company Tesla still has about $220 million in bitcoin, said he is “open” to Twitter buying Silicon Valley Bank in response to a proposal by Min-Liang Tan, CEO of gaming computer company Razor.

“I think Twitter should buy SVB and become a digital bank,” posted Min-Liang Tan.

Neither CZ nor Musk elaborated on how or if they might even buy Silicon Valley Bank.

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a crypto banking crisis that has spread to the wider industry.

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The Bitcoin and crypto industry was already in the midst of its own banking crisis when Silicon Valley Bank failed. Silvergate, a crypto-friendly bank, collapsed earlier this week after it was hit by customer withdrawals following the shock meltdown of major crypto exchange FTX last year.

Some in the crypto industry believe the US is waging an unofficial war against crypto companies, dubbed Operation Choke Point 2.0, in an attempt to stifle the technology.

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I am a journalist with significant experience in technology, finance, economics and business around the world. As founding editor of Verdict.co.uk, I reported on how technology is changing business, political trends and the latest culture and lifestyle. I have covered the rise of bitcoin and cryptocurrency since 2012 and have charted its rise from a niche technology to the greatest threat to the established financial system the world has ever seen and the most important new technology since the internet itself. I have worked and written for, among others, CityAM, the Financial Times and the New Statesman. Follow me on Twitter @billybambrough or email me at billyATbillybambrough.com. Disclosure: I occasionally hold a small amount of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.