Coinbase, Gemini and other big crypto names have rushed to ditch Silvergate after the bank warned of building troubles

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Coinbase, Gemini and other big crypto names have rushed to ditch Silvergate after the bank warned of building troubles
Coinbase, Kraken and other crypto apps.Getty Images
  • Crypto companies are cutting ties with Silvergate, once the go-to bank for digital currencies
  • This comes after the crypto bank flagged doubts about its survival.
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Some of the biggest names in crypto have backed away from lender Silvergate Capital after the key digital-currency player warned it's having to evaluate its ability to survive.

Coinbase, Paxos Trust, Circle Internet Financial and Galaxy Digital Holdings all said Thursday they plan to suspend banking with Silvergate, as did the Winklevoss twins' Gemini.

Crypto.com and Cboe's digital arm are also stepping away, Bloomberg reported.

The exodus of crypto exchanges, stablecoin issuers and trading desks came after Silvergate flagged doubts about its future in business.

It said it was delaying the filing of its annual report to regulators because it needs more time to look into how badly its finances have been hit by the events battering the crypto world.

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"The company is evaluating the impact that these subsequent events have on its ability to continue as a going concern for the twelve months following the issuance of its financial statements," the California-based firm said in an SEC filing Wednesday.

Silvergate's stock price plunged to close 58% lower on Thursday, and was down 5.24% at $5.42 in premarket trading Friday. Shares have fallen almost 95% in the past 12 months, as more than a dozen of its crypto firm customers shut down, were fined or came under investigation.

Silvergate used to be the go-to bank for the biggest names in crypto, operating a key payments network used for real-time transfers between the firms.

But the lender has struggled in recent months thanks to its ties to embattled crypto players, and it is seen as having suffered during as prices of digital assets tumbled last year.

It has been caught up in fallout from the implosion of now-bankrupt FTX, which was one of the lender's major clients. Its customers withdrew $8 billion in deposits late last year after the crypto exchange collapsed in November.

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In addition, it had relationships with other bankrupt crypto firms, like centralized lenders Celsius and BlockFi, along with digital asset brokerage Voyager Digital. It has also has worked with crypto exchange Binance's US arm, which is reportedly under criminal investigation for money laundering and criminal sanctions violations.

As fears swirled that Silvergate's troubles would spread through the crypto sector, companies stepped up to underline their positions.

MicroStrategy said it doesn't have any financial relationship with Silvergate, other than a loan it needs to pay back to Silvergate by 2025.

"For anyone wondering, the loan wouldn't accelerate b/c of SI insolvency or bankruptcy. Our BTC collateral isn't custodied w/ SI & we have no other financial relationship w/ SI," the business intelligence firm tweeted.

Stablecoin Tether is not exposed to Silvergate either, its chief technology officer said in a tweet Thursday.

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Meanwhile, JPMorgan analysts cut their rating on Silvergate stock to "underweight" from "neutral" and withdrew its $14 price target, CoinDesk reported. It also said broker Canaccord Genuity downgraded the bank's rating to "hold" from "buy" and slashed its price target to $9 from $25.

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