Silvergate Capital May Expand Its Bitcoin Lending Program, CEO Says

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