Within 11 days in March, four banks in the United States and one in Switzerland collapsed. First Republic Bank (OTC:FRCB) followed in May. Three of the four largest-ever U.S. bank failures occurred in those two months. It was a painful reminder that banks bear significant risks that can quickly spill over to other industries.
Ironically, despite a heavy focus on how the crypto-asset sector could introduce risks to traditional finance, we instead experienced bank failures becoming a critical stability risk to the crypto-asset industry.
Patrick Hansen is the director of EU strategy and policy at Circle. He was previously head of strategy and business development at crypto-wallet startup Unstoppable Finance, and head of blockchain policy at Bitkom, Europe’s largest tech trade association. He holds master’s degrees in business and political science.