Silvergate has suspended its dividends due to financial constraints. It claims it is taking that step to preserve a highly liquid balance sheet following a significant loss in Q4 2022.
$1B loss drives Silvergate to desperate measures
It has been a hard time for SIlvergate as it struggles to stay afloat following a $1B loss in Q4 2022. It won’t pay its investors dividends in 2023 as the economic conditions worsen.
This is not the first harsh measure the bank has taken; lately, it even laid off 200 employees to cut its expenses. The California-based bank announced on Friday that it was halting its dividends pegged at 5.375% Fixed Rate Non-Cummulative Perpetual Stock, Series A, to preserve capital.
It outlined that the decision comes amid the continuation of a strong crypto winter but did express that investors shouldn’t be worried about the reserves. It said it has at least a 1:1 match of reserves and customer deposits.
“This decision reflects the Company’s focus on maintaining a highly liquid balance sheet with a strong capital position as it navigates recent volatility in the digital asset industry.”
The firm added that its Board of Directors would re-evaluate the payment of quarterly dividends as the market conditions evolve. This news had a harsh effect on the company’s stock prices, with SI-PA dropping by 22.71% to $8.85 and the common SI stock price plummeting by 3.765 to $13.58.
Zooming out, the two stocks have been declining in value over the past 12 months, with SI-PA dropping by 60% and SI stocks by 87.46%.
A looming economic collapse?
Silvergate isn’t the only company affected by the ongoing financial crisis. Post COVID-19 economy was expected to be harsh and weigh down on the average investors and people. Things have worsened, with multiple companies having massive layoffs, filing for bankruptcy, and others going into debt.
Countries are also battling record-high inflation rates and recession threats. Earlier in the week, the US hit its debt ceiling and still has an inflation rate of 6.5%. Although it has managed to battle it from 10%+, the hitting of the debt ceiling means a hard time ahead for the citizens. On the other hand, the UK is expected to undergo a ‘soft recession’ in 2023.
The financial decline is cutting across the globe, with China being in a better position as it only has a 1% inflation to battle with. Citizens from other countries should brace for more challenging economic times as the markets may shrink.
Pro-crypto US senator Ted Cruz has filed a resolution to make lawmakers buy snacks around the Capitol using cryptocurrencies. His resolution includes the introduction of crypto-supporting snacks vending machines.
Anything for crypto adoption?
Texas senator Ted Cruz is determined to support crypto adoption as he continues to file pro-crypto proposals. In the latest filing, Cruz wants the Congress and House of Representatives to allow for the introduction of crypto-supporting snacks vending machines.
On Wednesday, he introduced a concurrent resolution that seeks to allow only vending machines and food service contractors that accept payments in cryptocurrencies. However, this requirement will only be for the suppliers around the US Capitol.
If this proposal is accepted, the Secretary of the Senate, the House of Representatives’ Chief Administrative Officer, and the Architect of the US Capitol will be required to source crypto-accepting food and vending service providers.
US lawmakers continue pushing for the adoption
Senator Ted Cruz has been vocal about cryptocurrencies for quite a long time. He has lauded Bitcoin and even invested in it, particularly for its decentralization. In early 2022 he even invested in the coin per a given disclosure.
He is not the only Bitcoin investor in Congress as well. Eight others are known according to reports by “Bitcoin Politicians,” a crowdsourced data project. Some of the eight legislators include Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis and Pennsylvanian Senator Pat Toomey.
Pat has been active in the crypto space and has introduced a stablecoin Bill that seeks to create a regulatory framework for their use in digital payments. On the other hand, Senator Cruz has also expressed his will to make Texas a Bitcoin Haven. He says that cryptocurrency mining can be a great way to monetize energy from oil and gas and would be a great way to store the energy.
These developments show a growing faith in innovation, and investors should learn about the crypto space before entangling with it to reduce the possible risks.
Uniswap users, particularly UNI holders, have preferred ditching Ethereum for rival smart contracting platform BNB Chain to deploy the V3 protocol in the latest voting. BNB Chain garnered 20 million votes to win the deployment temperature check.
Uniswap vote sways BNB chain’s side over Ethereum
The Uniswap community vote favors BNB Chain against the world’s largest open-source blockchain, Ethereum, for deploying the V3 protocol. The proposal was initially raised on Jan. 17 as a ‘temperature check’ on the Uniswap community, to which 80% of participants voted in favor of BNB Chain. The remaining 20% stood against BNB Chain, opting for Ethereum as the best network for the V3 protocol.
🦄 We’re excited to share that our @0xPlasma proposal to deploy @Uniswap v3 on @BNBCHAIN has passed the "Temperature Check" with 20M votes "YES" and 6,495 $UNI voters (the biggest number for the whole Uniswap Governance History). Moving forward to the final "Governance Proposal" pic.twitter.com/HoIJgY8mX1
Preference for BNB Chain among the Uniswap community was heavily influenced by the blockchain’s advantages over its rival counterpart Ethereum. Part of the reason for the deployment consists of the expiry of the v3 protocol’s contract with Ethereum.
Secondly, BNB Chain offers higher transaction speeds at a relatively cheaper cost than Ethereum, a feature that UNI token holders deemed handy for the V3 protocol. Additionally, BNB supports vital components such as staking and cross-chain transactions that could improve the user experience of the protocol in deployment.
The network crossover is expected to yield at least $1 billion in liquidity with an increase of 2 million new users. According to Uniswap’s official announcement and blog page, the transition is expected to last between 5 and 7 weeks. BNB Chain is also growing exponentially and increasing in popularity among DeFi devs.
BNB Chain has been recording immense progress since the year began. At the end of last year, the network registered more unique addresses than Ethereum. The BSC scanner recorded 233 million lectures, a 16 million difference from Ethereum, which had 217 million at the time the snapshot was taken.
Binance has announced that it will offer over 30K Web3 and crypto scholarships in 2023. This crypto exchange has been ramping up efforts to educate the masses and even started its Binance Academy to pass the knowledge to the world.
Binance to continue offering crypto education
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has revealed that it will offer over 30K Web 3 scholarships in 2023. Many colleges and universities have introduced crypto courses globally since the 2021 boom. Now, Binance wants to sponsor people to pursue these courses.
Some of the institutions Binance’s program will collaborate with include colleges in Australia, Germany, Cyprus, Ukraine, and Nigeria. It will also send some to the Women in Tech organization. Binance also revealed via an official blog that the 2023 scholarships program would be funded by its philanthropic arm, Binance Charity. It also explained its interest in spreading crypto knowledge to people via an official blog post.
An excerpt from the post reads:
“We recognize that digital education and skills development can be out of reach for many, resulting in a blockchain industry that lacks diversity and talent. The Binance Scholar Program changes all that, covering the costs of tuition and course fees at some of the world’s leading institutions.”
Binance
Crypto education becomes a key strategy for driving adoption
Crypto education has become a key tool to drive adoption globally, considering that the blockchain industry is relatively young. Few people have ample knowledge of how it works, making it get slower adoption as many tend to stay away from what they need help understanding.
As such, organizations like Binance have been dedicating their resources to the cause. Its blog revealed that it had over 82,000 applicants for this year’s scholarship program but will only come through about 37% of them.
On Dec. 30, 2022, the exchange also tweeted detailing the statistics around its crypto education program. It stated that it had spent over $15M educating people with over 300K beneficiaries. It also added that it reached out to 20 regions, dedicating 293,215 hours to crypto education. It also added that 71,205 people benefited from its scholarship program that year.
Our @BinanceBCF team has travelled across the globe this year, offering help and education to those in need.
These developments show a growing interest in crypto education, which means there will be more awareness surrounding the crypto industry. Keep watching FintechExpress for cryptocurrency and other finance-related news.
Genesis Capital has filed for bankruptcy protection with a New York court following a series of troubles with Digital Currency Group, its parent company. Bybit has been caught up in the crossfire as its investment arm reportedly committed sizeable funds to Genesis Capital, prompting its founder to speak out.
Mirana invested heavily in Genesis before bankruptcy
Ben Zhao, the Bybit founder, took to Twitter earlier today to comment on the developments regarding the connection between the now-bankrupt Genesis capital and Bybit.
He commented on an earlier tweet that had pointed at Bybit as a risky entity at the moment following Genesis Capital’s fall. The tweet claimed that Miran(Bybit) is one of Genesis capital’s creditors. The tweet detailed that Bybit had committed around $151M.
Zhao tweeted what he called full disclosure and said that Mirana is Bybit’s investment arm. He added that Mirana is tasked to manage some bybit company assets only and that client funds are separate from the funding that Mirana receives. He added that Bybit’s earn products also do not use Mirana.
Full disclosure: 1. Mirana is the investment arm of bybit. 2. Mirana only manage some bybit company asset. Client fund is separated snd bybit earn product doesn’t use mirana. 3. The reported 151m has abt 120m of collateralized positions which mirana had already liquidated. https://t.co/kqVPpAMGky
Zhao also stressed that of the reported $151M, around $120M is in collateralized positions that Mirana already liquidated before DCG and Genesis capital’s woes.
Series of bankruptcies continues in the crypto space
Genesis capital is one of the many platforms that have met their end in the 2022 bear market. Big names like FTX, Celsius, Voyager, and Blockfi have all filed for bankruptcy. Most of these players have gone under due to poor management and leadership.
Other big crypto empires like Terra Luna have also gone down, claiming the life savings of many. Now, there is no end in sight as even more organizations continue to file for bankruptcy, have lay-offs, and leave the crypto space.
It remains to be seen if the crypto space will learn from its mistakes this bear and do better in the future or if the mayhem will continue. Keep watching FintechExpress.news for crypto and other finance-related news.
