Announced voluntary liquidation (March 2023) after an $8B+ deposit run; wound down the bank.
The rise & fall
9 moments Β· 1988β2024
The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.
1988
π±
1988
Founded as a community bank
A small La Jolla, California lender β decades before anyone says 'crypto'.
Wikipedia
2020β21
2020β21
Deposits go vertical
After years courting crypto clients other banks wouldn't touch, deposits balloon from about $2B to over $10B.
CNBC
2021
π
2021
The peak: ~$6B crypto bank$6B
The Silvergate Exchange Network moves dollars between exchanges around the clock; the stock rides the crypto bull to a market cap near $6B.
CNBC
Nov 2022
Nov 2022
FTX collapses; the run begins
After Celsius and Voyager, the failure of major client FTX triggers withdrawals of more than $8B and a fire-sale of assets.
CNBC
2022
π
2022
Falls out of the club
The stock loses most of its value as the run drains the bank.
CNBC
2022β23
π¬
From the inside Β· Glassdoor reviews, 2022β23
Glassdoor reviews read like a wake: employees adored the tight-knit culture to the end, yet several had flagged the concentration risk early β an all-in crypto bet the bank wouldn't diversify, and a workforce grown rapidly then cut within months.
Mar 8 β23
πͺ¦
Mar 8 β23
Voluntary liquidation β joins the Unitard Club π
Silvergate announces it will wind down the bank and liquidate, wiping out shareholders.
CNBC
2024
2024
Regulators collect $63M
Settlements with the Fed, California regulators and the SEC total $63M in penalties.
SEC
$5.94Bof peak value erased Β· 34 years
π¬ entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor β; dated facts carry their source.
How it happened
Silvergate Capital was a California bank that reinvented itself as crypto's banking backbone, its Silvergate Exchange Network moving dollars between exchanges around the clock. Deposits ballooned from about $2B in 2020 to over $10B in 2021, lifting its value near $6B, before the 2022 collapses of Celsius, Voyager and especially FTX, a major client, triggered a run of more than $8B and a fire-sale of assets; in March 2023 it announced a voluntary liquidation that wiped out shareholders.
Source: CoinDesk / CNBC / TechCrunch (peak market cap ~$6B 2021; deposits surged from ~$2B to >$10B then ran off $8B+ after FTX collapse; voluntary liquidation announced March 8 2023; later $63M in regulatory penalties)
Where they went
AL
Alan Lane
CEO 2008-Aug 2023 (hired by the founders; led the bank to its peak and into the 2023 wind-down)
