Silvergate Bank, which this week warned about its ability to stay in business, shut down its SEN platform, which institutions used to transfer funds 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 on Friday. “All other deposit-related services remain operational.”
A spokesman for the bank sent a similar message to companies in the crypto sector.
“Unfortunately, we have no further information to share at this time,” the spokesman 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 large crypto firms among its clients for the service, including Binance US, Kraken, Gemini and ErisX (before the latter was acquired by Cboe).
Silvergate has had a rough week after announcing on Wednesday that it would delay filing its annual report due to questions from its auditors. In the same statement, the bank admitted it faces investigations from banking regulators and the US Department of Justice, and said its ability to be a going concern next year may be in doubt.
A number of prominent crypto clients exited the bank 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.