Former Silvergate Bank CEO Alan Lane said political and regulatory pressure from the Biden administration led the crypto-focused lender to voluntarily wind down in 2023, arguing that the bank remained solvent after surviving a deposit run.
In a Substack post published Tuesday, Lane said Silvergate could have continued operating after meeting withdrawals equal to 70% of its demand deposits in the fourth quarter of 2022. He described the wind-down as the result of a “coordinated attack by the Biden Administration,” saying the bank chose liquidation under political pressure. Lane also said the bank held liquid assets that could have been sold or pledged as collateral during periods of heavy withdrawals.
The bank’s January 2023 business update showed digital asset deposits falling 68% in the quarter, from $11.9 billion to $3.8 billion. Silvergate sold $5.2 billion of debt securities and recorded a $718 million loss, while reporting $4.6 billion in cash and equivalents at year-end.
Lane’s account adds a firsthand claim to the debate over whether US agencies sought to restrict crypto companies’ access to banking. Federal findings, however, attributed the liquidation to the bank’s concentrated deposit base, funding risks and weaknesses in governance and compliance. A September 2023 review by the Federal Reserve Board’s Office of Inspector General said Silvergate’s reliance on crypto depositors, rapid growth and multilayered funding risks led to its liquidation, and cited significant weaknesses in corporate governance and risk management. The review also said examiners could have acted more aggressively and decisively.
Lane said no regulator had proven that Silvergate’s anti-money laundering controls failed. In July 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Silvergate Capital, Lane and former chief risk officer Kathleen Fraher with misleading investors about the bank’s AML program and monitoring of crypto customers. The SEC alleged that Silvergate’s automated system failed to monitor more than $1 trillion in transactions and that the bank failed to detect nearly $9 billion in suspicious transfers among FTX entities.
Lane settled the SEC charges without admitting or denying the allegations, agreeing to a $1 million penalty and a five-year officer-and-director bar. The Federal Reserve separately fined Silvergate $43 million over transaction-monitoring deficiencies.
Lane also cited interagency crypto-risk statements issued in early 2023 as evidence of pressure on the industry. The statements urged banks to approach crypto-related activities cautiously, although the Federal Reserve said institutions were neither prohibited nor discouraged from serving any specific customer class. Government agencies withdrew the statements in April 2025.
