MADRID, 9 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Silvergate Capital, a firm focused on bitcoin and blockchain companies, has announced the cessation of activity of Silvergate Bank and the “voluntary liquidation” in an orderly manner and in accordance with the applicable regulatory procedures of the operations of the ‘cryptobank’, guaranteeing that it will reimburse all deposits.
“In light of recent industry and regulatory developments, Silvergate believes that an orderly cessation of the bank’s operations and a voluntary liquidation of the entity is the best way forward,” the firm said in a statement.
In this sense, it has specified that the reduction and liquidation plan of Silvergate Bank includes the total reimbursement “of all deposits”.
On the other hand, the company is considering how best to resolve the claims and preserve the residual value of its assets, including its proprietary technology and tax assets.
Last week, Silvergate had notified the SEC that it would not be able to file its 2022 annual report on time, warning then that the firm was evaluating the viability of the business and its strategy in light of the commercial and regulatory challenges it faced. must face.
Silvergate lost 948.6 million dollars (900 million euros) in 2022, compared to the attributable net profit of 75.5 million dollars (71.6 million euros) the previous year, affected by the crisis in the cryptographic sector, including the bankruptcy of the FTX platform, which triggered a strong outflow of deposits from the entity.
Thus, in the last quarter of the year, Silvergate suffered losses of 1,049 million dollars (995 million euros), in contrast to the gains of 18.3 million dollars (17.3 million euros) recorded between October and December 2021.
In the fourth quarter, the entity had deposits amounting to 6,296 million dollars (5,971 million euros), a drop of 56% compared to the 14,290 million dollars (13,553 million euros) a year earlier.
In fact, only in the last three months of 2022, Silvergate deposits fell by 52% compared to the 13,238 million dollars (12,555 million euros) recorded in September of last year.
Silvergate shares, which began trading in 2019, closed this Tuesday at $13.33, after having closed 2022 at a price of $17.40, far from the more than $239 at which it was listed at end of November 2021.