Greg Becker

SVB was the preferred banking partner for thousands of venture-backed technology startups, venture capital firms, and tech-adjacent financial companies including Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin. Under Becker's leadership, SVB grew from a regional tech-focused lender into the 16th largest US bank by assets. The bank's business model centered on taking deposits from tech startups and VC firms and investing heavily in long-duration US Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities — a strategy that generated acceptable returns during the low-interest-rate environment of 2020-2021. As the Federal Reserve aggressively raised interest rates through 2022 and 2023, the market value of SVB's bond portfolio fell significantly. When the bank announced it needed to raise capital in March 2023, a bank run ensued as depositors — many of them tech companies with balances well above FDIC insurance limits — rushed to withdraw funds. SVB was placed into FDIC receivership within 48 hours. The collapse directly affected Circle, which held approximately $3.3 billion of USDC reserves at SVB. The uncertainty caused USDC to temporarily depeg from $1, falling to $0.87 before the US government guaranteed SVB deposits above the standard insurance limit. The incident exposed systemic dependencies between traditional banking infrastructure and crypto-dollar stability mechanisms.