Circle was SVB’s biggest client: report

The stablecoin issuer’s SBV holdings were backstopped by the FDIC

article-image

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire | Eóin Noonan for MoneyConf (CC license)

share

Turns out that, at least for a time, stablecoin issuer Circle was reportedly the single largest asset-weighted customer of Silicon Valley Bank. 

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed earlier this year, with the venture capital banking favorite going down as one of a series of overextended US banks that met their demise amid mounting withdrawal pressure. 

Citing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, Bloomberg reported on Friday that Circle was the top depositor at SVB. Circle does business as Circle Internet Financial. 

Loading Tweet..

Bloomberg reported that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. told the publication that the document in question was inadvertently released in its unredacted form.

An FDIC spokesperson declined to comment to Blockworks, and a spokesperson for Circle did not immediately reply to a request for comment. 

Circle held about $3.3 billion at SVB around the time of the bank’s collapse in March, and the USDC issuer then pledged to “stand behind USDC.” The document obtained by Bloomberg states the Circle held the top spot in a ranking of both the top 10 depositors and the top 10 accounts — suggesting that Circle maintained more than one account at SBV. 

The FDIC stepped in to insure all SBV deposits after the bank went under, not just deposits under the federal agency’s typical $250,000 threshold. 

Circle’s USDC stablecoin had depegged from its one-to-one dollar mooring when SBV headed for bankruptcy, raising crypto industry questions as to the extent of the damage from ties to SBV and other banks that went on to fail, including Signature and Silvergate. 

Circle in the aftermath started doing due diligence on and tapping a number of new prospective banking partners, including striking an agreement with Cross River Bank, to facilitate the usage and transfer of USDC and the company’s other products. 

Read more: After Bank Failures, Where Will Crypto Firms Turn?

Dollar-pegged stablecoins booked a relatively quick recovery after their initial demooring. Ample is crucial to ensuring stablecoins adhere closely to the price of the asset they are pegged against.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

An overview of the Base Ecosystem, with a focus on market leaders.

article-image

Stanford professors David Mazières and Dan Boneh will lead the lab alongside a cohort of graduate student researchers

article-image

With more companies holding BTC, bitcoin yielding strategies could become “a new corporate finance norm,” CoinShares posed

article-image

The proposal comes after Polygon governance considered a controversial use of bridged liquidity for yield

article-image

Can the community balance its decentralized ethos with the need for inclusivity and constructive debate?

article-image

DAWN is positioning itself as a decentralized protocol for gigabit-level internet access

article-image

VanEck Ventures and VanEck’s Digital Assets Alpha Fund invested $2.5 million in DAWN through a strategic funding round, the teams exclusively told Blockworks