Silvergate Bank CEO said that their Bitcoin lending continues to grow strongly while referring to the recent market volatility as a good stress test.
Last week, Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency market witnessed a relief rally trying to come out of the bear’s grip. However, we aren’t completely out of the bearish situation as of now. Alan Lane, CEO of crypto-focused Silvergate Bank, said that there’s more pain left in the Bitcoin and altcoin market.
Lane believes that some crypto exchanges and crypto funds might experience additional pain in the upcoming quarter. He added:
“Over the coming quarters, the crypto industry may still pose challenges for some exchanges and crypto funds. However, at some point, all that will be over, and then we will just be waiting for what is the next catalyst”.
But Lane believes that the current crypto market slide is different from the previous ones. This time, the global macros are having a major impact on the broader crypto market.
We have seen the crypto markets correcting along with Wall Street this year. But in addition, the market has its own struggles considering the major bankruptcies of crypto lenders and crypto hedge funds.
Silvergate Bank Stock Reacts Similarly
The stock of Silvergate Bank has reacted similarly to the crypto market movements this year. The stock price of Silvergate Capital (NYSE: SI) has corrected more than 42% year-to-date. During the last week’s recovery, the stock price gained 35%. As of Friday’s closing, Silvergate Corp. was trading at $86.05.
However, the stock recovery also comes as Silvergate Bank reported an 85% jump in revenue to $38.6 million from $20.9 million year-over-year. The company’s fiat on-ramp for bitcoin markets – Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) – reported a 34% surge in US dollars transfers.
Lane said that the company is strongly navigating through the bear market by doing what it knows best and not chasing FOMO. He further added:
“We really try to stay in our lane and not chase the latest fad, but really just focus on what we do well, and essentially just solving problems for our customers”.
Silvergate Bank CEO Positive on Bitcoin Lending
Despite several crypto lenders like Voyager and Celsius announcing bankruptcy, Alan Lane remains positive about its Bitcoin lending program. Speaking to CoinDesk, he said:
“We’re absolutely still interested in lending against bitcoin. We believe that is some of the best lending we’ve ever done, and we want to continue to grow that.”
Through its SEN Leverage Program, Silvergate also offered $250 million in loans to Michael Saylor‘s MicroStrategy. Lane believes that the recent crypto rout was a good stress test while showing that the bank can strongly survive its lending business in such market volatility.
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