Silvergate Bank's Q4 Earnings Misses Estimates

Crypto-focused Silvergate Bank's fourth-quarter earnings dropped 22% from the third quarter, falling short of estimates and sending shares of its parent company down 13% in pre-market trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

• The fourth-quarter earnings of $18.4 million, or 66 cents a share, fell short of analysts' average estimate of 73 cents a share. The company posted earnings of $23.5 million, or 88 cents a share, for the third quarter and $9.1 million, or 47 cents a share, for the fourth quarter of 2020. The overall crypto market soared in 2021.
• The number of the bank's digital currency customers rose to 1,381 at the end of December from 1,305 at the end of September and 969 at the end of 2020, according to an announcement on Tuesday.
• Average digital currency customer deposits rose to $13.3 billion in the fourth quarter from $11.2 billion in the third quarter.
• Meanwhile, the bank's on-ramp for bitcoin markets known as the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) processed transfers worth $219.2 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with $162 billion in the third quarter and $59.2 billion in the year-earlier fourth quarter.
• Shares of the bank's parent company, Silvergate Capital Corp., were down 13.4% in pre-market trading.
• Silvergate's clients include crypto exchanges such as Coinbase, Gemini and Kraken and stablecoin issuer Circle.

Read more: Silvergate Bank Looks to Raise $461M in Public Stock Offering