Top crypto tokens crash 5-9% on Indian exchanges after Silicon Valley Bank crisis

moneycontrol.com:

The last 24-48 hours were yet another shocker for the crypto industry with the stock crash of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Though not a direct impact on Indian exchanges’ business, but popular crypto tokens trading on these platforms including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Binance Coin, Doge Coin, Shiba Inu among others crashed between 5-9 percent on March 10.

At about 7:10 pm on WazirX, Bitcoin’s price was down by 6.27 percent, Ethereum’s price plunged 8.03 percent, Doge coin was trading down by 6.71 percent, XRP was down by 6.01 percent and Binance coin by 5.31 percent respectively.

Indian crypto industry players, however, are not worried by this impact immediately as they see this as a reflection of how global exchanges and token prices are reacting to SVB’s stock market crash. SVB held funds of most top crypto exchanges and startups in the US.

Both crypto-focused bank Silvergate and SVB were giving banking services to retail and institutional customers who were trading into crypto. So the customers could essentially withdraw the fiat currency or USD held in their accounts with these banks to buy crypto tokens on regulated exchanges. Many of the top crypto exchanges globally held their funds with these banks too.

Meanwhile, US president Joe Biden’s budget proposal for 2024 which came out a day ago, made significant changes and increase in various aspects of crypto taxes in the US.

“Stocks and crypto together lost $2 trillion in value today,” Sidharth Sogani, founder and CEO of crypto research firm CREBACO told Moneycontrol.

Sogani added that while there won’t be any direct impact on Indian crypto investors, retail investors wanting use foreign exchanges to buy crypto tokens with fiat currency face a challenge.

Sathvik Vishwanath,