Bitcoin (BTC) has skyrocketed over the past day as cryptocurrency prices are buoyed amid banking woes in the United States. The pioneer crypto is back trading above $26,000 for the second time this week. This comes while cornered SVB Financial Group has filed for voluntary court-supervised reorganization under Chapter 11 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
$2.2 Billion In Liquidity
Silicon Valley Bank’s parent company SVB Financial Group (SIVB), has filed for Chapter 11 protection.
In a press release Friday, the troubled company announced that it had commenced voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings to preserve value. According to the announcement, SVB Securities and SVB Capital’s funds and general partner entities will continue to operate in a regular manner while SVB Financial Group moves to explore strategic alternatives for its businesses.
Said William Kosturos, Chief Restructuring Officer for SVB Financial Group:
“The Chapter 11 process will allow SVB Financial Group to preserve value as it evaluates strategic alternatives for its prized businesses and assets, especially SVB Capital and SVB Securities. SVB Capital and SVB Securities continue to operate and serve clients, led by their longstanding and independent leadership teams.”
SVB Financial Group also stressed that the firm is no longer affiliated with Silicon Valley Bank — which was shuttered by State regulators last week — or the bank’s private banking and wealth management business, SVB Private.
Per SVB Financial Group’s estimates, the company has roughly $2.2 billion in liquidity. Besides cash and its interests in SVB Capital and SVB Securities, the firm has “other valuable investment securities accounts and other assets” for which it is also hunting strategic options.
SVB Financial Group’s funded debt is around $3.3 billion in aggregate principal amount of unsecured notes “which are only recourse to SVB Financial Group and have no claim against SVB Capital or SVB Securities.” The release also indicates that SVB Group has an outstanding $3.7 billion of preferred equity.
BTC Tops $26K
Interestingly, bitcoin is benefiting from instability in the U.S. banking system. Last week, the dramatic collapse of three prominent U.S. banks prompted market volatility and cries that decentralized finance can solve many of the problems caused by legacy banking systems.
Bitcoin pushed past $26,000 on Friday, up 7.35% in the last 24 hours, per data from CoinGecko. BTC’s upsurge came alongside a broader uplift in the crypto market, which saw the total market value of all cryptocurrencies rise over 5.4% in the past day to $1.18 trillion. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is up 5.62% to $1,743.41.
BTC is close to obliterating the key $27,000 barrier. The next technical hurdle for the top cryptocurrency is $28,000.
Meanwhile, crypto analyst Charles Edwards has identified a textbook bullish “Bump & Run Reversal” formation on bitcoin’s chart, which predicts BTC could make a run for $100,000 if the pattern plays out.