The real cost to startups is in management attention. If you're running a YC-funded startup, and got hit by this, it's going to occupy your attention for the next week at least, and probably the next month. The skills needed to deal with this are way outside the skill set of most tech founders, and even outside the skill set of most bankruptcy lawyers. You're going to need corporate lawyers and people who can evaluate deals in SVB receiver certificates. There aren't many people who do that sort of thing, and by now, they're probably all booked up.

And what are those founders going to do? They're going to call up YC, which funded them and has board seats, and ask for instructions. YC probably told them to use Silicon Valley Bank.[1] So now YC has some responsibility to untangle this. It's probably in YC's interest to find a bulk buyer for SVB receivership certificates. If they don't, all their startups will be losing a month or two of management distraction while dealing with this problem.

For YC to take the lead on getting a market going in that stuff makes a lot of sense. They're the largest interested party. There are probably people at YC right now working the phones, trying to find a buyer for that paper.

So, priority is to get through the next two weeks while somebody works out a longer term solution. Keep track of which founder teams deal with this well. They have potential in running a larger business.

[1] https://www.svb.com/account/y-combinator