Silvergate Bank, which this week warned about its ability to stay in business, shut down its SEN platform that institutions used to move money to crypto exchanges.
“Effective immediately, Silvergate Bank has made a risk-based decision to discontinue the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN),” the company said on its website Friday. “All other deposit-related services remain operational.”
A spokesperson for the bank sent a similar message to companies within the crypto sector.
“Unfortunately, we have no additional information to share at this time,” the spokesperson said.
SEN is a 24/7 instant settlement service that the bank’s customers can use to transact with each other at any time, including nights and weekends. The bank counted a number of major crypto companies as clients for the service, including Binance US, Kraken, Gemini, and ErisX (before the acquisition by Cboe).
Silvergate has had a tough week after announcing on Wednesday that it would delay the filing of its annual report due to questions from its auditors. In the same post, the bank admitted it was facing investigations from banking regulators and the U.S. Department of Justice, and said there are doubts about its ability to be a “going concern” for the next year.
A number of high-profile crypto clients jumped on the couch the next day, and the stock price fell nearly 60% before stabilizing somewhat on Friday.
UPDATE (March 3, 2023, 23:50 UTC): Adds additional information.
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