Stablecoin Depegs: How They Hit Crypto Bots and How to Prepare
On March 11, 2023, USDC traded as low as $0.87 on some venues after Circle disclosed that $3.3 billion of its reserves sat at the failed Silicon Valley Bank. It recovered within 48 hours once federal regulators guaranteed deposits — but for two days, every bot quoting trades in USDC was pricing its own P&L against a moving target. If your bot held a "flat" position in USDC during that window, you weren't flat. You were long a stablecoin that had just lost 13% of its dollar value.