During the week ending March 15, two Federal Reserve backstop facilities were utilized by US banks to borrow a total of $164.8 billion.

The traditional liquidity backstop for banks, also known as the discount window, saw a record-high borrowing of $152.85 billion, which increased significantly from the previous week’s $4.58 billion.

According to a March 17 report in Bloomberg, this surpasses the all-time high of $111 billion reached during the 2008 financial crisis.

According to the data, the Bank Term Funding Program, which is a new emergency backstop launched by the Fed on Sunday, recorded $11.9 billion in borrowing. The combined credit extended through both backstops highlights that the banking system is still vulnerable and struggling with deposit outflows resulting from the recent collapses of Silicon Valley Bank of California and Signature Bank of New York.

Banking contagion

On March 16, the largest banks in the country reached an agreement to deposit roughly $30 billion with First Republic Bank as part of an initiative led by the US government to stabilize the struggling California-based lender.

This after the decision last weekend by the US Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) to safeguard all depositors of SVB and Signature, going beyond the usual deposit insurance limit of $250,000.

However, Reuters reported that any bank bidding for Signature, one of the distressed banks that had a bank account belonging to Circle, would be forced to give up any crypto-related aspects of the business.

As it means for crypto, Circle, the founders of the second largest stablecoin market cap, USDC,  the stablecoin was eventually able to get to its $1.00 peg, despite trading to as low as .88 cents over the weekend.

Read more: Circle says substantially all USDC minting, redemption backlogs are resolved after wild week

“Trust, safety, and 1:1 redeemability of all USDC in circulation is of paramount importance to Circle,” CEO Jeremey Allaire said on a March 16 episode of the Bankless podcast.

“I’m a very deep believer in full-reserve banking,” Allaire added, the “idea that we don’t need to have a fractional reserve, where the base layer in government obligation money, and the payment system innovation built on top is done via the internet using software.”

Coinbase spent $3.4 million on lobbying activities in 2022, ranking second, while Binance US and FTX US ranked ninth and 13th, respectively, according to a recent report by Money Mongers.

The exchange’s 2022 lobbying spend marks a 122% increase from 2021’s $1.52 million, according to the Money Mongers report.

Binance U.S. grew its budget for lobbying by 500% and spared $960,000 in 2022 compared to $160,000 in 2021. This placed Binance U.S. in ninth place in the ranking. FTX.U.S., on the other hand, ranked 15th  and spent $720,000 for lobbying in 2022, marking a 1340% increase from $160,000 in 2021.

Lobbying activities since 2017

Blockchain Association and Robinhood followed Coinbase as the second and third largest spenders on lobbying activities by sparing $1.9 million and $1.8 million in 2022, respectively.

Coinbase, Blockchain Association, and Robinhood also rank among the top five biggest lobbying spenders since 2017, sparing over $5.59 million, $3.9 million, and $3.89 million, respectively.

On the other hand, CME Group holds the leadership in the ranks by having spent over $8.26 million on lobbying activities in the last six years. Binance U.S. and FTX U.S. spared a budget for lobbying activities in 2021 and 2022, placing them 10th and 15th in the ranking, respectively.

British MP Matt Hancock is continuing his mission to support blockchain technology through a new NFT collection called “From Ukrain with Love,” according to a statement given to CryptoSlate.

From Ukraine with Love

The NFT collection comprises works painted by Ukranian artist Oleg Mischenko before the war and will be sold at The NFT Gallery in London’s Mayfair on Monday, 27th February. Funds from sales will go toward CARE International UK’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. The collection, “From Ukraine with Love,” was curated by Irina Korobkina, who fled Kyiv with her 5-year-old daughter following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Hancock’s involvement stems from hosting Korobkina in the UK since April 2022. Mischenko remained in Ukraine painting as “shells rained down around him” before joining his family in December.

“My husband’s paintings and this NFT collection gives my family and my country hope. Each piece depicts nature in our wonderful Ukraine. It was a beautiful, flourishing, peaceful country until Putin waged this illegal and barbaric war.”

Matt Hancock champions crypto

Regarding the NFT collection, Hancock commented;

“I’m incredibly proud of Irina and Oleg, and I am honoured to support the family with their charity NFT collection[…] Oleg is an incredibly talented artist, and his ‘From Ukraine, With Love’ collection is truly stunning.”

Hancock has been vocal in supporting the blockchain industry with calls to make the UK a “crypto hub.” The MP for West Suffolk has previously focused on advocating for a “growth-maximizing view where revenues in the future will be far greater” in relation to crypto tax and regulation.

However, the launch of this new NFT collection showcases Hancock’s desire to not only champion blockchain as a technology but also to promote its use cases.

Speaking at Zebu Live in London on Sept. 23, 2022, Hancock revealed that he did not hold any crypto assets, including Bitcoin. The MP argued that by not holding crypto personally, he was more able to be objective about its future.

However, this approach is uncommon within the space as a whole, with the majority of influential figures in the crypto space personally investing large sums into digital assets.

Hancock has been bullish on blockchain for some time. In 2016, when he was the Paymaster General, he stated,

“The government cannot bury its head in the sand and ignore new technologies as they emerge[…] That is partly what happened in the past in government with the web … We cannot let (that) happen again by standing still.”

While most of Hancock’s efforts to promote crypto within the UK took place before 2020, he reemerged as the political face of crypto within the British government in 2022, with numerous appearances endorsing UK crypto.

The NFT collection is hosted on Coinbase’s NFT marketplace and launches on Feb. 27.