Silvergate Bank announced it is ceasing operations of its own payment network SEN. The information was posted on the site.
“Silvergate Bank made a risk-based decision to terminate the Silvergate Exchange Network, which takes effect immediately. All other deposit-related services continue to operate,” the statement said.
A company spokesperson told CoinDesk that a similar message had been sent to crypto-sector companies.
SEN is an internal payments network that clients can use to conduct transactions between themselves. Among the latest users were Binance.US, Kraken and Gemini.
Silvergate decided to wind down the service shortly after Moody’s downgraded its rating from “Ba3” to “B2”.
On March 2, the financial organization announced the delay in publishing its annual report for the SEC, amid which its market capitalization fell by 48.82%.
On March 3, short-seller trader Marc Cohodes published on Twitter photographs of an allegedly abandoned company office.
No one home.. Just now at HQ $SI pic.twitter.com/kQ6TJ5798A
— Marc Cohodes (@AlderLaneEggs) March 3, 2023
In a comment to The Block he said that “Silvergate is a public crime scene, and CEO Alan Lane belongs in prison.”
“I would be very surprised if the bank opened next week,” the trader added.
Earlier in March, many crypto companies, including Bakkt, MicroStrategy, Circle and Paxos, distanced themselves from the financial organization distanced themselves. The latter halted all SEN transfers to Silvergate accounts.