Anecdotally about SVB and crypto; I really wanted to put my funding round assets into Silicon Valley Bank for my last start up. However, when I was speaking to their bankers, I mentioned that there was a possible element of the platform that would be Web3 based. The SVB team immediately paused my application and insisted that they do a deep dive into all of my investors, my bank accounts, and my pitch decks. My pitch deck did not include materials about web3 since it was so tertiary to our core strategy, and this discrepancy between what I had told them and the paper materials was such that it raised enough of an alarm at SVB that the refused to take my deposit.
They were really concerned about anything web3 so I wonder if they limited their exposure. Or maybe it was just us they didn’t like.
Probably they just perform more extensive due diligence because of the market, as cryptocurrencies are more risky. I know of plenty of cryptocurrency companies that use SVB.
I think it's more that the crypto crash and SVB liquidity issues are dominoes from the interest rate environment. SVB wasn’t particularly deep in crypto AFAIK, although if I’m remembering correctly I think I once met someone on a specifically crypto-focused team there. (It stands out in my memory because I consider it a minor red flag when dealing with banks.)
FTX collapsed in 2022, I don't think we should be so quick to dismiss contagion given we're still watching the fall out. The subprime mortgage crisis didn't happen overnight.
