Crypto Stakeholders Say No Exposure to Shuttered Silvergate

Crypto companies are scrambling to reassure the market that they do not have any corporate cash left at Silvergate Bank, which recently announced it is in the process of winding down its operations through voluntary liquidation.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted that his exchange does not have assets at Silvergate, while Coinbase said that it does “not have client or corporate cash at Silvergate.” OKX President Hong Fang said the exchange’s “corporate and customer funds” are safe.

Crypto infrastructure company Paxos said in a statement that the company “has virtually no exposure to Silvergate.”

“Last week we discontinued SEN connectivity and wires into our Silvergate account and have continued processing outgoing withdrawals, a spokesperson said in an email to CoinDesk. “As a regulated institution, Paxos has always focused on protecting customers’ funds so banking redundancy is built into our platform."

Meanwhile, the Crypto Council for Innovation blamed the collapse of Silvergate on a bank being overly exposed to one sector and encouraged regulators to let more banks take crypto deposits.

“Discouraging banks from providing deposit accounts only exacerbates this problem by creating fewer options for any one sector to obtain banking services. The problem is not about crypto, but concentration risks,” Shelia Warren, the council’s CEO, said in a statement.

“Hopefully, this situation serves as a needed reminder to regulators of the risk of concentration, which is certainly not unique to the crypto industry, and will cause them to encourage responsible distribution across the banking sector,” she wrote.