Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse earlier this month dealt a major blow to the wine and crypto firms that entrusted their money with and depended on the lender to stay afloat.
Ednews reports citing foreign media that but it also gave the fine wine and crypto industry a big boost as panicking investors rushed out of the financial sector and into alternative assets.
SVB lent over $4 billion to winery clients since 1994, with over 400 wine industry clients (including wineries, vineyards and vendors) working with the bank’s premium wine division, according to the bank’s website.
Recent SEC filings, meanwhile, indicated SVB had about $1.2 billion in outstanding loans to high-end wine clients when the bank collapsed. Those wineries will be able to recover their money, but what happens to their lines of credit is still uncertain as the details of the bank’s sale to First Citizens BancShares gets hammered out.
SVB also had deep ties to the crypto industry. Circle, the company behind popular stablecoin USDC, said it had about $3.3 billion of its $40 billion in reserves at SVB. The firm’s USDC coin plunged in value on the news that the bank had failed, though it has since recovered.
The collapse of Signature Bank, a major crypto lender, also had serious implications for the industry. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) recently told the bank’s crypto clients that they must close their accounts and move their money by April 5, as the deposits were not included in the rescue deal arranged with Flagstar Bank this month.
