Finance · Profile from Finance Research Companion
Silvergate Capital Corporation (Silvergate Bank)
A small San Diego-area thrift that became the main US bank of the crypto industry, built the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) so that exchanges and trading firms could move dollars to each other around the clock, grew deposits from ~$2bn in 2019 to ~$14bn at end-2021 almost entirely from crypto companies, counted FTX and Alameda Research among its clients, lost ~$8.1bn of crypto deposits in the quarter after FTX collapsed, borrowed $4.3bn from the Federal Home Loan Bank to survive, and on March 8, 2023 announced the voluntary wind-down and liquidation of its bank. Unlike Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, which failed days later, Silvergate repaid every depositor without FDIC involvement. Its holding company paid $63m to the Federal Reserve and California regulators in 2024 to settle charges over anti-money-laundering failures and misleading investors, filed for Chapter 11 in September 2024 and had its liquidation plan confirmed in November 2025.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1988 as Silvergate Thrift and Loan in La Mesa, California (reported); became a commercial bank in 2009 (reported, verify)
- Founder
- Dennis Frank, long-time chairman (reported)
- Headquarters
- La Jolla, California (holding company); bank based in La Jolla and La Mesa
- Ownership / structure
- Silvergate Capital Corporation, NYSE: SI from November 2019 until delisting in 2023 (verify date); its subsidiary Silvergate Bank was a California state-chartered, Federal Reserve member bank supervised by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the California DFPI
- Leadership
- Alan Lane, CEO (2009–2023, reported); Antonio Martino, CFO; Kate Fraher, chief risk officer; Ben Reynolds, president (reported)
- Segment and clients
- Bank for digital-asset (crypto) exchanges, institutional investors, stablecoin issuers and miners, plus a legacy book of commercial real estate, multifamily and mortgage warehouse loans
- Scale at peak
- Total deposits ~$14.3bn at end-2021, of which ~$14.1bn from 1,381 digital-currency customers (10-K; Q4 2021 release); total assets ~$16bn (reported, verify); digital asset deposits $11.9bn at September 30, 2022
- Profit
- Net income ~$78m (2021, reported, verify); net loss ~$1.0bn in Q4 2022 and $948.7m for 2022 (company)
- Market value
- Shares peaked above ~$200 in late 2021 (reported, verify; IPO price $12); equity effectively wiped out by 2023
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Pivot to crypto clients under Alan Lane (2013); the Silvergate Exchange Network (2017–18); NYSE IPO (2019); SEN Leverage bitcoin-backed loans (2020); the 2021 deposit boom and equity raises; purchase of Meta's Diem stablecoin technology (2022); FTX collapse and deposit flight (2022); voluntary liquidation (2023); regulatory settlements and Chapter 11 (2024–26)
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2013
Crypto Pivot Under Alan Lane
Pivot (new client segment: digital-currency companies)
2017
Silvergate Exchange Network
Launch (real-time payments network for institutional crypto clients)
2019
NYSE IPO
IPO
2020
SEN Leverage Bitcoin Backed Lending
Launch (new lending product)
2021
Deposit Boom and Equity Raises
Balance-sheet strategy (investing a deposit boom in securities) and funding (equity and preferred offerings)
2022
Diem Stablecoin Purchase
Acquisition (technology and intellectual property) / failure
2022
FTX Collapse and Deposit Flight
Failure (deposit flight after a major client's collapse)
2023
Voluntary Liquidation
Failure / voluntary wind-down and liquidation of the bank
2024
Regulatory Settlements and Chapter 11
Regulatory settlement; bankruptcy (Chapter 11 liquidation)