Share this article
21.co CEO Sees ‘No Material’ Impact on Bitcoin Following Silvergate’s SEN Platform Closure
Hany Rashwan, co-founder of the Zug, Switzerland-based ETP provider, says bitcoin’s price is being driven by more macroeconomic factors, including inflation and East Asian traffic.
Updated Mar 6, 2023, 7:27 p.m. Published Mar 6, 2023, 6:00 p.m.
Silvergate Bank’s (SI) woes, including the shutdown of its crypto lending platform, SEN, aren’t necessarily moving the price of bitcoin , Hany Rashwan, CEO of cryptocurrency company 21.co, said. Rather, he attributed recent price levels to macroeconomic factors.
“We don’t see too much of a material impact on the price [of bitcoin] from Silvergate,” Rashwan told CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” on Monday. “I would obviously concede that it’s one of several factors that’s driving the price right now.”
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Last week, California-based Silvergate said it would be suspending its 24/7 crypto exchange service, citing contagion concerns from the implosion of FTX and further regulatory scrutiny. The platform, which allowed its client to make transactions at any time, was used by major crypto players, including Kraken, Gemini and Binance.US.
Silvergate’s story has yet to be defined, Rashwan said, but bitcoin's price performance is now being influenced by macroeconomic factors, including inflation, which he said “is still both rampant and here.”
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to testify before a Senate committee Tuesday. Whether the Fed will increase interest rates again is likely, according to Rashwan. But pinpointing the connection between inflation and an asset like bitcoin “remains to be seen.”
“I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet,” he said. “We will continue to see these [interest] rate rises,” he added, but whether the market has priced that in “it's really difficult to show right now.”
Additional macro factors, including China’s loosening of its COVID-19 restrictions, could also drive a rally in the digital asset moving forward, Rashwan said, adding that “it’s definitely helpful.”
“A lot of East Asian traffic was subdued for quite some time due to a number of factors, both economic and political,” Rashwan added.
Nonetheless, China’s “opening up is clearly bullish, and sending a lot of buy signals,” he said.
Read more: Justin Sun Says Hong Kong’s New Licensing Regime Could Shift Policy in Mainland China, Eventually
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Coinbase Sees Crypto Recovery Ahead as Liquidity Improves and Fed Rate Cut Odds Climb
The crypto exchange also took note of a so-called AI bubble that continues to go strong and a weaker U.S. dollar.
What to know:
- Coinbase Institutional is seeing a potential December recovery in crypto, citing improving liquidity and a shift in macroeconomic conditions that could favor risk assets like bitcoin.
- The firm's optimism is driven by rising odds of Federal Reserve rate cuts, with markets pricing in a 93% chance easing next week, and improving liquidity conditions.
- Several recent institutional developments, including Vanguard's crypto ETF policy reversal and Bank of America's greenlighting of crypto allocations, have contributed to bitcoin's rebound from recent lows.
Top Stories
