Shares in troubled crypto-currency firm Silvergate plunge

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Shares in troubled crypto-currency firm Silvergate plunge

After Silvergate Capital Corp pulled its plug on its criptoPay network, shares fell in premarket trading on Monday, as it doubted it would keep its business viable.

The digital assets-focused bank said on Friday that it had made a risk-based decision to discontinue the Silvergate Exchange NetworkSilvergate Exchange Network SEN Shares of the La Jolla, California-based bank, which was down more than 4% in premarket trading, while Signature Bank fell 3%. Coinbase Global and BTC mining machine maker Ebang International were both down 1% each.

The market for bothBitcoin andEthereum fell 4.8% for the week due to the negative news from Silvergate Bank, according to analysts at the brokerage Bernstein.

After the lender's latest filing raised questions about its ability to continue as a going concern, a number of heavyweights including Coinbase Global and Galaxy Digital have dropped Silvergate as their banking partner.

Since their record close in November 2021, Silvergate shares have fallen to a new low of $4.86 and wiping out more than $7 billion from the company's market capitalization.

The firm has struggled to stay afloat after the collapse of Sam Bankman- Fried's FTX in November caused investors to withdraw $8 billion in deposits from the bank in the last three months of the year.

Silvergate reported a net loss of $1 billion in the fourth quarter.