So who was on the other side of the SVB equity holders loss trade?

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If SVB's equity holders / shareholders lost all their money, who made money on the other side?

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Stock prices are estimates of value. It's not exactly funny money but with the way the market moves today, it's not too far off, either.

Essentially the shareholders paid for a stock an amount that was far in excess of an appropriate representation of the equity in that company.

So I guess whoever "sold" them the stock, before it tanked, made the money on the other side.

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I'm not familiar with how balance sheets and assets and liabilities work in a liquidation, so just want to learn from the experts here.

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Bankruptcy trustee sells assets, then there is an order of liquidation. There are classes, and each class is fully paid before the next class gets anything. The last class to get paid, generally there is not enough to make that class whole, so they are usually paid pro-rata.

There are four main classes, and usually subdivisions with each class.

Secured Claims
Unsecured Priority Claims
Unsecured Non-Priority Claims (General Unsecured)
Equity Security Interests

Usually the money runs out before the equity class. This makes sense because generally insolvency means liabilities > assets.

The basic accounting equation is Assets = Liability plus Equity, so if liabilities exceed assets, then equity must be negative, and if assets are sold, there is not enough to pay off all the liabilities, much less the equity.

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