Citadel Securities, a global quantitative trading and market making firm, has acquired a 5.5% stake (worth around $25 million) in cryptocurrency bank Silvergate Capital Corp, Reuters reports, citing a regulatory filing.
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Amid the news, Silvergate's shares (SI) jumped 16.5% on Nasdaq to $17.1 and the company's market capitalization surged up to $543 million.
The investment comes despite scrutiny from a bipartisan group of US Senators over Silvergate's business ties to FTX and Alameda Research. Earlier in February, top US senators, including Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republicans Roger Marshall, laid out a series of questions addressing Silvergate's services related to the-now bankrupt crypto exchange.
The lawmakers said the firm in December last year had declined to fully answer related questions over restrictions on disclosing "confidential supervisory information."
Silvergate was one FTX's banking providers. According to reports, the California-based bank was processing some of the exchange's wire transfers to Alameda Research.
In Q4, Silvergate suffered a net loss of $1 billion due to a "transformational shift" in the industry. The bank added that "significant over-leverage in the industry" led to a "crisis of confidence," forecasting a sustained period of lower deposits in the future.
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