Stress on the legacy financial system is intensifying as reports suggest that the US government won’t be stepping in to save the collapsing First Republic Bank.
First Republic’s shares continue to plunge, and were halted from trading five times this morning by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) due to extreme volatility.
The bank’s troubles took a new turn yesterday when it was revealed that over $100 billion in customer deposits had fled the institution in March and that layoffs were inevitable.
It was previously expected that the US government would intervene to bail out the bank as it has in similar situations in the past. However, a new report from CNBC says otherwise.
Sources reportedly told CNBC’s David Faber today that US government officials are currently “unwilling to intervene in the First Republic rescue process,” further stirring up uncertainty surrounding the ailing bank. The situation for First Republic comes despite 11 other institutions injecting over $30 billion into the bank in an attempt to rescue it, and last-ditch efforts are reportedly being made to ask for more cash.
First Republic’s stock (FRC) is trading at $6.50, and is now down about 97% from its all-time high, hit in November of 2021.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) is up 8% on the day, potentially reacting to the crisis. The flagship cryptocurrency retouched $30,000 on Wednesday morning after hovering near $27,000 for several days.
While the majority of market participants have been expecting a significant period of consolidation for Bitcoin, some BTC bulls are instead anticipating a new price parabola in the near future, one which front runs the halving slated for next year, which will cut BTC miners’ rewards in half and has historically coincided with bull runs.
Pseudonymous analyst TechDev recently told his 409,000 Twitter followers that multiple technical indicators are suggesting that BTC is repeating its market structure of the 2015 bull cycle, when the king crypto rallied from less than $200 to $20,000 in about two years.
“Early stage of a Bitcoin parabola, following a 1.5-year correction.”
Featured Image: Shutterstock/Yurchanka Siarhei