Bitcoin ‘safe haven’ during banking crisis and thousands of Belgian clients of crypto platform can’t access their money

Bitcoin grew again and it seems possible that the biggest digital coin will break through the $30k level this weekend after a very positive week for the crypto market, partly due to the new problems in the US banking sector. Meanwhile, the only Belgian crypto platform, called Bit4You, closed after the collapse of their service provider in Estonia.

Safe haven

The financial experts at Bernstein in New York wrote this week in a note to customers, which news channel CNBC published, that Bitcoin will indeed again function as a ‘safe haven’ if a new banking crisis (currently they are looking for a solution for First Republic Bank) would expand.

Bernstein predicts crypto will emerge as an alternative financial system amid bank busts, and says to buy bitcoin https://t.co/FZP879OygO

— CNBC (@CNBC) April 27, 2023

Bernstein wrote:

The safe haven signal will lead to a new crypto cycle, pushing digital wallets as on-chain savings accounts. The gap between Treasury rates and bank deposit rates will continue to hollow out banks, with weak balance sheets leading to another round of mass migration to money markets.

Bitcoin has rallied by some 80% this year. Its price surged 23% in March amid multiple bank failures in the US. Ethereum’s token ether is up 76% year-to-date.

Bit4You

CoinLoan, the crypto platform from Estonia, closed down this week.

That had direct consequences for the only crypto platform based in Belgium, called Bit4You, which had to do the same two days later because it was counting on CoinLoan for credit and had stalled a lot of its client funds there.

Duizenden klanten Belgisch cryptoplatform Bit4You kunnen niet aan hun geld https://t.co/QNGpZNeYeD

— De Tijd (@tijd) April 27, 2023

The digital lending platform CoinLoan was just about the most important partner of Bit4You, which has been operating in Belgium for five years (their launch was attended by the current prime minister of Belgium, Alexander de Croo). According to the management of the Belgian company, about half of the assets of Bit4You customers were placed with CoinLoan.

Bit4You à l’arrêt: 41.800 clients exposés à hauteur de 6,5 millions d’euros https://t.co/nzB63JaNgS

— L’Echo (@lecho) April 27, 2023

Everything once again appears to be a result of the collapse of FTX in November 2022.

belchonock / Depositphotos.com