US officials are reportedly studying ways to expand the current scope of deposit insurance that would guarantee all U.S. bank deposits should the current banking crisis worsen.

The current deposit insurance cap under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) stands at $250,000, however, following the collapse of several banks in March, there have been calls to increase that amount.

Organizations such as the Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America called on March 18 for the cap to be lifted for the next two years, citing a need to protect depositors and to stop capital being pulled from smaller banks for supposedly safer-looking heavyweights.

According to a March 21 Bloomberg report citing “people with knowledge of the talks,” Treasury Department staff members are currently discussing the possibility of the FDIC being able to expand the current deposit insurance beyond the max cap to cover all deposits.

The move would ultimately hinder on what level of emergency authority federal regulators have, and if the insurance cap can be increased without formal consent from Congress.

Bloomberg’s sources indicated, however, that U.S. authorities don’t deem such a drastic move necessary at the moment, as recent steps taken by financial regulators are likely to be sufficient.

As such, they stated that a potential strategy is being whipped up just in case the current situation gets worse.

In response to Silvergate, Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank going bust in recent weeks, the Federal Reserve rolled out the $25 billion Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) on March 13, as the government pushed to stem any further contagion.

Meanwhile, in a March 20 press briefing, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was specifically asked if the federal government was supportive of a push from small and mid-size banks to expand FDIC insurance beyond $250,000.

Jean-Pierrre was tight-lipped on the Biden Administration’s view, noting that “our goal is to ensure the financial system is stable,” before emphasizing that creating a fair playing field was the “focus of Treasury and the bank regulators.”

And as you saw, due to our actions this week at the direction of the President, Americans should be confident of their deposits. We’ll be there when they — when they need them.

“And — and so, again, that’s what our focus is going to be. We don’t have any new announcements at this time. But clearly, we want to make sure that our financial system is stable,” she added.

#Binance #BTC #koinmilyoner #BNB #abd

After a brief crash, Bitcoin (BTC) is back on track toward surpassing the critical level at $30,000, pulling most of the cryptocurrency market up with it. But were the crypto wallets connected to Mt. Gox and the United States government truly to blame for the latest collapse, as the rumors suggest?

Indeed, speculation has been running that the now-defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox was moving its reserves, as well as that the US government was selling some of the Bitcoin seized in criminal investigations, and that this had caused the massive sell-off that brought the price down.

The offending alerts

As it happens, this whole rumor started after Twitter user db shared an alert from blockchain analytics firm Arkham, claiming that the wallets linked to Mt. Gox and the US government were moving massive amounts of the flagship decentralized finance (DeFi) asset.

Originally, the company originally said that the alerts wet out in error after a “bug fix,” only to later correct itself, stating that the alerts did, in fact, go out correctly but that db had erroneously configured them:

“We have conducted an investigation of the DB Alert situation and determined that the Arkham alerts were sent accurately in this case. DB set two alerts on all Bitcoin transactions above $10k USD, with no counterparties set, then named the alerts ‘Mt Gox’ and ‘US Gov.'”

Indeed, Julio Moreno, head of research at the on-chain analytics provider CryptoQuant, said that his platform did not see any of the activity that the rumors suggest, neither from Mt. Gox nor the US Government, sharing the charts and links where users can verify this information.

But what if?

In the event that Mt. Gox truly starts compensating the creditors suddenly and en masse, and the US government begins selling off the seized Bitcoin, the effect on the market would not be so catastrophic, according to a report shared by crypto services provider Matrixport on its Telegram channel on April 27.

As the report states:

“We have analyzed the potential market impact back and forth and do not think this would be a big deal. The market should be well aware of the eventual distribution of those Bitcoins.”

Detailing the civil rehabilitation plan and deadlines for the 10,000 affected Mt.Gox customers around the world after the widely publicized hack, the platform explained:

“The hacks resulted in 850,000 stolen Bitcoin valued at $500 million at the time and worth $17.8 billion today. Only 200,000 BTC has since been recovered. (…) Since not all of the stolen BTC could be recovered, only a fraction of the original amount held by creditors will be compensated.”

Meanwhile, Bitcoin was at press time changing hands at the price of $29,400, recording an increase of 1.49% on the day, as well as a 4.05% gain across the previous week, adding up to the 7.73% growth on its monthly chart, according to the data retrieved by Finbold on April 28.

#Binance #BTC #mtgox #abd #BullRun

BitMEX founder and veteran of the crypto space says that Americans are facing an imminent wave of inflation that will severely damage their savings.

In a new blog post, Hayes says that as the US loses dominance over the global economy, financial markets will balkanize into several blocs rather than make way for another hegemony.

As the dollar’s supremacy in global trade erodes, Hayes says that the government will go to great lengths to prevent capital flight to crypto and other assets.

“The West cannot allow general capital flight from its markets to places like crypto or foreign stock and bond markets. They need you, the reader, as exit liquidity. The colossal debts accumulated since WW2 (World War II) must be paid, and it’s time for your capital to be eviscerated by inflation. A capital flight would also definitely spell the end for the USD’s role as the global reserve currency.

As I mentioned [previously], the West cannot easily enact draconian capital controls because an open capital account is a prerequisite for the type of capitalism it practises. Even so, if the West starts to sense that a mass exodus of capital is on the horizon, it will almost certainly make it more annoying and difficult to pull money out of the system. If you believe my thesis, then you should start to see many of the world powers’ recent financial policy changes in a different light.”

The crypto billionaire also notes that the US is already making it harder to store money in decentralized crypto wallets, perhaps in anticipation of a potential exodus from the traditional financial system.

Hayes says that crypto and gold will move to the forefront of financial markets as investors and countries look to shield themselves from currency debasement. While the accumulation of the precious metal has already begun, Hayes says that Bitcoin (BTC) could be next.

“Moving forward, gold and crypto will be in focus. They are not tied to a particular country. They cannot be debased at will by a central bank desperate to prop up their financial system with printed fiat money. And finally, as countries start looking out for their own best interests rather than serving as slaves to the Western financial system, central banks of the global South will diversify how they save their international trade income.

The first choice will be to increase gold allocations, which is already underway. And as Bitcoin continues to prove it is the hardest money ever created, I expect that more and more countries will at least start to consider whether it is a suitable savings vehicle alongside gold.”

#Binance #crypto2023 #abd #bitcoin #keepbuilding