Hours after the crypto-tied bank failed, USDC’s normally stable price plummeted to $0.869 from $1.

Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) failure triggered some of the crypto industry’s core plumbing to malfunction early Saturday.

The price of stablecoins soared and gas fees soared as investors scrambled to move their money after regulators shut down SVB in the wake of a run on the crypto-linked bank.

After the collapse of SVB, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen convened top financial regulators to discuss the situation. Shortly thereafter, crypto markets went into turmoil, suggesting the bear market has entered an even darker phase.

The most important conversation in crypto and Web3 takes place April 26-28 in Austin, Texas.

Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) failure early Saturday led to some of the cryptocurrency industry’s core plumbing going haywire.

Investors scrambled to move money around after regulators shut down SVB amid a run on the crypto-linked bank, which was the second of this week to fail.

Not long after SVB collapsed, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen convened top financial regulators to discuss the collapse. Soon after, crypto markets went into turmoil, indicating that the more-than-year-long bear market has reached a new low.

In the case of crypto, which lacks a central bank like the Federal Reserve that can bail out the industry, it is unclear what will happen.

U.S. lawmakers meet with the Federal Reserve and the FDIC to discuss the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank

As a result of a massive depreciation of Circle Internet Financial’s USDC stablecoin, investors were unable to safely store their funds. The USDC/USDT pair (which tracks Circle’s coin against the larger one issued by Tether) sank to $0.869 on the Kraken exchange at 07:16 UTC on Saturday – far lower than it ever got amid the market stress that followed the FTX debacle in November. At 18:07 UTC, it was back at $0.94.

SVB confirmed late Friday that about $3.3 billion of its reserves backed the world’s second-largest stablecoin.

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Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) failure caused some of the cryptocurrency industry’s core plumbing to malfunction early Saturday.

After regulators shut down SVB amid a run on the bank, which had ties to crypto, stablecoin prices swung dramatically and gas fees soared. It was the second crypto-linked bank to collapse this week.

Following the collapse of SVB, Janet Yellen convened top financial regulators to discuss the collapse. Not long after, crypto markets went into chaos, suggesting the more-than-year-long bear market has entered even darker territory.

Although crypto lacks a central bank like the Federal Reserve that can bail out the industry, the question lingers: How will it end? There are echoes of the 2008 global financial crisis, where bad news kept getting worse and worse.

U.S. lawmakers met with the Fed and FDIC to discuss Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse

USDC, the stablecoin created by Circle Internet Financial, depreciated massively from its intended $1 price – an harrowing development for a product intended for investors to store their cash. In the aftermath of the FTX debacle in November, the USDC/USDT pair (which tracks Circle’s coin versus the larger one issued by Tether) plunged to $0.869 on the Kraken exchange on Saturday. At 18:07 UTC, it was back around $0.94.

Unknown USDC/USDT sinks (Kraken) on CoinDesk

SVB confirmed late Friday that about $3.3 billion of the reserves backing the world’s second-largest stablecoin were held there.

Read More: Coinbase pauses USDC-USD conversions as banking crisis roils crypto

In order for a stablecoin to be worth more than $43 billion – as USDC was earlier on Friday – it needs to have around that amount of cash or cash-like fixed-income instruments on hand. A slump below $40 billion has now hit USDC’s market cap.