Fed balance sheet swells by $300B in just a few days
The US Federal Reserve's balance sheet expanded by $297 billion to $8.639 trillion in the week of March 15, reaching the highest value since November.
The expansion was mainly due to banks borrowing short-term loans from central banks to deal with the crisis of confidence.
According to official data, banks borrowed a record $152.9 billion from the Fed's discount window, $11.9 billion from the newly created Bank Term Funding Program, and $142.8 billion was lent to the new bridge banks created by the FDIC for Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
That said, analysts warn this is not free money, but rather high-interest loans. The Fed's balance sharp increase thus does not mean renewed quantitative easing, initiated after the 2008 crisis and the March 2020 crash, which stimulated asset prices.
Yet the overall unstable banking sector has still increased the demand for crypto, which is now seen as a hedge against bank runs
The US Federal Reserve's balance sheet expanded by $297 billion to $8.639 trillion in the week of March 15, reaching the highest value since November.
The expansion was mainly due to banks borrowing short-term loans from central banks to deal with the crisis of confidence.
According to official data, banks borrowed a record $152.9 billion from the Fed's discount window, $11.9 billion from the newly created Bank Term Funding Program, and $142.8 billion was lent to the new bridge banks created by the FDIC for Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
That said, analysts warn this is not free money, but rather high-interest loans. The Fed's balance sharp increase thus does not mean renewed quantitative easing, initiated after the 2008 crisis and the March 2020 crash, which stimulated asset prices.
Yet the overall unstable banking sector has still increased the demand for crypto, which is now seen as a hedge against bank runs