PacWest Bank plummets 50%! How will Bitcoin react?

Macro Markets, hosted by crypto analyst Marcel Pechman, airs every Friday on the Cointelegraph Markets & Research YouTube channel and explains complex concepts in layperson’s terms, focusing on the cause and effect of traditional financial events on day-to-day crypto activity.

PacWest Bancorp’s 50% price decline and the ongoing banking crisis are the first topics of this week’s show. The bank holds $40 billion in assets, although 80% of its lending portfolio has been assigned to commercial real estate loans and residential mortgages. The issue? As usual, rising interest rates. Meanwhile, the total underwater bond position of United States banks is $600 billion, not including derivatives.

However, the U.S. Treasury has been bailing out every one of the latest three bankruptcies: Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Signature Bank and First Republic. SVB’s losses are estimated at $20 billion, or 15% of the total Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) capacity.

Pechman explains how Bitcoin’s (BTC) price should react in case PacWest Bancorp fails and why gold has recently flirted with its all-time high above $2,050. More importantly, how the banking crisis impacts government debt, which is spiraling out of control — consequently, extremely positive for Bitcoin in the long run.

The next concluding segment of Macro Markets focuses on oil prices, as the energy commodity traded down 17.5% in three weeks. Pechman shows how the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) doesn’t really control production and how the U.S. government played a key role in diminishing the demand for oil imports.

According to Pechman, the biggest take for Bitcoin is the potential oil demand flatline due to weaker economic conditions, which can be deemed a short-term negative driver for risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.

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