Things seem to be settling down after some extraordinarily hectic days starting with the shutdown of Silicon Valley Bank last Friday. We'll give you the quick rundown in our Friday Focus below.  

Top stories

• Silicon Valley Bank shut down by US banking regulators

• Signature, another crypto-friendly bank, also shut down

• Crypto prices soar amid turmoil 

Last week's Friday Focus was barely off the pressers before news broke of regulators shutting down Silicon Valley Bank. The ripple effects soon hit crypto, with Circle confirming that $3.3bn of USDC backing was stuck. In turn, USDC depegged, and the crypto markets went haywire over the weekend. 

To add to the turmoil, on Sunday, N.Y. regulators took the time to shut down another crypto-friendly bank. Order in the markets was, however, largely restored when U.S. banks opened on Monday. The banking problems have yet to deter the appetite for cryptocurrencies, as crypto prices have soared over the past seven days. 

Many in the crypto industry view the recent bank shutdowns as an attack on crypto. A claim that is naturally dismissed by the authorities. 

Other things have happened in the past week as well. Here's our list of the most interesting stories:

• FTX paid around $2.2bn to Sam Bankman-Fried, new management says

• U.S. Federal Reserves real-time payments system coming in July 

• SEC chairman Gensler suggests again that proof-of-stake tokens are securities 

• The EU Parliament passes a bill requiring smart contracts to include kill-switch 

  • Editor's note: Good luck with that!

• Binance will convert $1bn worth of BUSD stablecoin to Bitcoin, Ether, BNB, and other tokens. 

Weekend Reading

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