Etsy Delays Seller Payouts Due to Run on Silicon Valley Bank

The sentiment on Twitter seems to be “tough. You, Etsy seller, took a risk by selling on a platform that used a bank that made a bad investment. The tax payer shouldn’t bail out a bunch of rich pottery artists.”<p>These sorts of effects (Etsy sellers not getting paid) are going to show up all through the ecosystem if 25% of venture backed companies can’t make payroll next week.<p>SVB equity holders should go to zero. But it’s in our collective best interest to make sure that depositors have timely access to some meaningful portion of their deposits.

I have an Etsy shop. I have a teeny tiny side gig selling plants: homegrown dahlia tubers, tulip bulbs, unusual and super-hot chili peppers grown from seed, fancy-schmancy houseplants, etc.<p>I may or may not be out $21 for the month, big whoop. But for a lot of people I know who sell on the platform, Etsy is the whole enchilada of their business. A lot of people stay with it, despite the fees they charge, because a centralized marketplace is a much better way to find a market than your own store, domain name, merchant account, search experience, customer services, etc...<p>So, uh, asking for a friend: what banks do eBay, Shopify, OfferUp, Facebook Marketplace, and Stripe use? Because there&#x27;s unfortunately no reason this problem can&#x27;t happen again to others...

Etsy has done many things that made me leave the platform entirely. When I realized that money that should go directly to me just sits in Etsy&#x27;s accounts so they (and whomever is holding the money) can gamble on it until payout time made me leave for good.<p>You pay me IMMEDIATELY on my sales or you don&#x27;t get my business and my money.

Talk about ripple effects.

So how are we supposed to avoid this? If you can&#x27;t trust that your money in a bank will be there tomorrow, then where should we put it?<p>I thought this was supposed to be impossible, besides total civilization collapse. You risk losing money when it&#x27;s in the stock market, not when it&#x27;s in a bank.

Misleading title. Correct title &quot;Etsy stops paying sellers due to liquidity issues arising from SVB failure, may be about to go bust&quot;.

I once bought a ~40 USD item on Etsy, and it never arrived. Contacted the seller, they said they would resend, but that didn&#x27;t happen and the seller went silent.<p>Contacted customer support - never heard from them.<p>Lesson learned: Can&#x27;t used Etsy except when you have perfect trust in the seller.<p>PS - This is the absolute opposite experience than what I&#x27;ve had on, say, AliExpress - where disputes may not always get settled in your favor, but they are settled in an orderly and timely manner.