Silicon Valley Bank, one of tech’s favorite lenders, collapsed on Friday after 48 hours of turmoil, making it the second-largest bank failure in US history.
The bank implosion sent shockwaves throughout the tech sector, Wall Street, and Washington, DC, amid concerns that other banks could be in trouble or that contagion could occur. In the days following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, panic appeared to spread, leading to the failure of additional banks, including Signature Bank of New York, which bet on crypto. But it’s unclear how severe the fallout will be.
(Disclosure: Vox Media, which owns Vox, bankrolled SVB before it closed.)
The federal government has said it will come close to ensuring that all depositors of Silicon Valley Bank will have access to their funds. To some, it looked like a bailout, but President Joe Biden said those funds would not come from taxpayer dollars, but through loans from a newly created Bank Term Funding Program. It’s also important to note for buyers that the money you have in the bank today is almost certainly fine.
Stay tuned here for all of Vox’s coverage of this developing story.