(Silvergate Bank, modified using PhotoMosh)
Silvergate Bank continued to add a steady drip of crypto customers in the second quarter of 2020 but its issuance of bitcoin-collateralized loans grew by $10 million, outperforming the growth of its real estate loan book by 10x.
According to its latest earnings report, released Monday morning, the bank’s traditional loan portfolio – a real estate–heavy loan book of about $1.1 billion – only increased by $1 million from the first quarter. Bitcoin-collateralized loans through the bank’s SEN Leverage product surged by $10 million in the first quarter.
The uptick from $12.5 million to $22.5 million represents 80% quarter-over-quarter growth for the product, which is part of the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN).
The publicly traded La Jolla, Calif.-based bank is one of the few U.S. banks willing to openly serve crypto-related businesses and has most of its deposits from the crypto sector. The bank went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the trading symbol SI in November. With $2.34 billion in total assets, Silvergate is less than 1% the size of JPMorgan Chase, a $3.1 trillion behemoth.
Key stats from the earnings report include:
The bank continues to have a steady pipeline of more than 200 customers waiting to be onboarded, Silvergate CEO Alan Lane said in a press release.
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