The banking crisis doesn't appear to be over yet. Shares of PacWest Bancorp (PACW) fell by more than 50% in after-hours action on Wednesday following a Bloomberg report the U.S.-based lender is mulling a range of strategic options.

Bitcoin (BTC) was up on the news, rising more than 2% to $28,900 at press time.

The news on PacWest comes only days after First Republic Bank (FRC) was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and then sold at auction to JPMorgan (JPM). In a Monday morning call following the takeover, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said, "I think the banking system is very stable. ... This part of the crisis is over."

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell had similar thoughts after the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting Wednesday. Speaking after the central bank's 10th consecutive rate hike, Powell declared the banking system to be "sound and resilient."

Other regional bank stocks have been moving lower on Thursday including Western Alliance Bancorp (WAL), down 28%, and Metropolitan Bank (MCB), down 19%.

Bitcoin banking system banking US

Stephen Alpher

Stephen is CoinDesk's managing editor for Markets. He previously served as managing editor at Seeking Alpha. A native of suburban Washington, D.C., Stephen went to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, majoring in finance. He holds BTC above CoinDesk’s disclosure threshold of $1,000.