Block.one CEO Become the Largest Silvergate Shareholder


A filing with the SEC indicates that Block.one's CEO, who created the EOSIO cryptocurrency and EOS coin, has acquired a stake in Silvergate Capital, the parent company of Silvergate Bank, a crypto-fiat gateway system.
Brendan Blumer, CEO of EOS developer Block.one, bought 9.3% of crypto bank Silvergate Capital (SI) and Block.one bought another 7.5%. With this purchase, Blumer becomes Silvergate Capital's largest shareholder.
During 2017-2018, Block.one raised $4 billion in its EOS initial coin offering (ICO). It follows lawsuits over money-raising issues by EOS investors and, later, market performance issues. Also, the SEC charged it with not registering its initial coin offering with the agency.
According to the company, Silvergate has consistently innovated and is undervalued. "We believe Silvergate’s current equity prices do not accurately reflect their strong balance sheet, their strategic positioning, or their market-defiant growth trajectory, and therefore offers a unique investment opportunity. We are excited to be a new passive shareholder."
Despite a decline in crypto-to-fiat transfers year-over-year, Silvergate's profits rose 84% in the third quarter to $43.33 billion. A stablecoin called Diem was issued by the bank in partnership with Facebook (now Meta). The stablecoin launch was delayed in October due to distribution issues following Silvergate's purchase.
Silvergate fell sharply after FTX collapsed. The bank says FTX represents less than 10% of its total deposits from digital asset customers.
Founded in 2017, Block.one is known for developing the EOS.IO protocol, which was announced in 2017 and released open-source in 2018.

Pavan A
CBW - External Analyst
INDIA