Operation Choke Point 2.0: The Fall of Silvergate | Alan Lane — Key Takeaways
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Operation Choke Point 2.0: The Fall of Silvergate | Alan Lane
What Bitcoin Did1h 30mOct 9, 2026
Watch the originalAlan Lane, former Silvergate CEO, attributes the bank's forced wind-down to a deliberate Washington policy decision to cut crypto off from US banking, not to the bank run itself — Silvergate survived losing 70% of deposits in weeks by designing its balance sheet around short-term liquid assets instead of loans.
Key takeaways
Silvergate survived a 70% deposit run that no other bank could have
Silvergate survived a 70% deposit run that no other bank could have
- Their balance sheet held pledgeable securities instead of long-dated loans, allowing instant liquidity via Fed borrowing.
- Lane told staff: "If all the deposits leave, we will handle every withdrawal" — and they did.
Silvergate wound down 2 days before Silicon Valley Bank failed
Silvergate wound down 2 days before Silicon Valley Bank failed
- Silvergate announced wind-down Wed March 8, 2023; SVB failed Friday March 10; Signature was seized Sunday March 12.
- SVB's CEO suggested Silvergate's announcement contributed to SVB's run. Silvergate got no bailout; SVB depositors did.
The SEN's 24/7/365 dollar rails were built for a specific arbitrage problem
The SEN's 24/7/365 dollar rails were built for a specific arbitrage problem
- Proprietary trading shops spent half their time managing liquidity across Singapore and London to capture kimchi-trade spreads.
- Ben Reynolds realized enabling client-to-client dollar transfers within Silvergate would unlock this bottleneck.
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In this video
- 1mIntroduction
- 2mAlan Lane and Silvergate’s Early Days
- 6mDiscovering Bitcoin
- 17mSilvergate’s Early Bitcoin Growth
- 20mBuilding the Silvergate Exchange Network
- 26mManaging Deposits in a 24/7 Market
- 36mGoing All In on Bitcoin
- 41mGoing Public and the COVID Boom
- 52mSilvergate at Its Peak
- 59mFTX Collapses and the Bank Run Begins
- 1h 6mSelling $5 Billion and Planning to Rebuild
- 1h 14mWhy Silvergate Decided to Close
- 1h 19mSilicon Valley Bank and Signature Fail
- 1h 22mThe Aftermath and Personal Cost
- 1h 28mDebanking and the Case for Bitcoin
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