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Silvergate Capital May Expand Its Bitcoin Lending Program, CEO Says
The comment came after the bank reported earnings that beat estimates, sending its shares up 13%.
Updated May 11, 2023, 4:00 p.m. Published Apr 19, 2022, 5:17 p.m.
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Silvergate Capital (SI) is willing to “entertain more opportunities” to expand its bitcoin lending program, CEO Alan Lane said Tuesday on the company’s post-earnings conference call.
- Last month, Silvergate made a $205 million bitcoin-backed loan to MicroStrategy (MSTR), a software company that is led by bitcoin supporter Michael Saylor, and the bank is looking to do more. “It’s a great time to be a bitcoin banker," Lane said on the call.
- The MicroStrategy loan came via Silvergate’s Silvergate Exchange Network Leverage Program, a platform set up to make loans against bitcoin held on a company's balance sheet.
- Silvergate also said its plan to launch a stablecoin this year remains on track, though no exact timing was given. Management said it's figuring out how to manage reserves for the coin.
- In January, Silvergate announced it was purchasing the technology and other assets from Diem, the stablecoin project from Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook) first announced as Libra in June 2019.
- Shares of Silvergate were recently up 12.6% as the company reported per-share earnings for its first quarter that topped analysts' estimates.
Read more: Silvergate Bank's Q1 Net Income Nearly Doubles to $24.7M
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