Circle's USDC briefly de-pegged when $3.3 billion of its reserves were confirmed at SVB.

Survives

Case description

The March 2023 collapse of Silvergate Bank and Silicon Valley Bank—both of which provided banking services to crypto companies—caused temporary access disruptions for customers of crypto companies that banked with them. Circle's USDC briefly de-pegged when $3.3 billion of its reserves were confirmed at SVB. Crypto companies that relied on SVB for fiat wire transfers found their USD on-ramp and off-ramp temporarily unavailable, preventing them from processing customer Bitcoin withdrawals that required USD conversion.

Custody context

Stress condition	Legal or authority constraint
Custody system	Exchange custody
Outcome	Survives
Documentation	Unknown
Year observed	2023
Country	United States

Structural dependencies observed

Institutional cooperation required

Outcome interpretation

Access remained possible under the reported conditions.

Source

Publicly Reported

Evidence type

News article

Evidence link

https://milkroad.com/bankruptcies/

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Framework references

Where Bitcoin Custody Intersects Legal and Fiduciary Authority

Where custody creates gaps in estate planning, fiduciary duty, and professional responsibility.

Professional Scope Boundary Matrix

What each professional or product covers, what they do not, and where gaps form between them.

The Independent Assessment Layer in Bitcoin Custody

How independent diagnostic layers emerge when multiple parties depend on shared infrastructure.