Coinbase Pauses Conversions Between USDC and US Dollars as Banking Crisis Roils Crypto

While temporary, the pause speaks to the chaos that’s roiled the crypto industry’s second-largest stablecoin in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank’s demise. All day Friday crypto traders speculated on the stability of USDC and redeemed $1.6 billion of the stablecoin, lowering its total supply. Circle counted on Silicon Valley Bank as a parking spot for $3.3 billion of cash backing the $40 billion USDC; the fate of that cash is now uncertain, as SVB has been seized by the FDIC.