A SilverGate board member resigned on Thursday, the cryptocurrency-friendly bank announced in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Rebecca Rettig, who first joined Silvergate's board last March, announced yesterday that she would be stepping down from the company. A Columbia Law graduate, he previously served as General Counsel at Aave, the team behind the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Aave.
Silvergate said in a statement that Rettig decided to leave the company because he had "taken an executive position at another company" and would focus on his new responsibilities, "not because of controversy or controversy."
Rettig tweeted Thursday that he is joining Polygon Labs to become the company's first director of policy. Silvergate and Retig did not immediately respond to Decrypt's request for comment .
"I've been thinking a little about art, how to build the future, what I believe in," he wrote. “I come back to the same idea. What is important now is the right crypto policy.”
Silvergate recently came under fire from the Justice Department , which is investigating La Jolla Bank's actions on bank accounts linked to the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and from Alameda Research, a trading firm owned by the exchange's former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
Fed and Senators probe Silvergate Bank's role in FTX meltdown
When the Bankman Fried crypto empire collapsed last November, sparking industry-wide contagion, Silvergate's crypto stashes were rocked. The bank said its cryptocurrency deposits fell by $8.1 billion in the last fiscal year.
Meanwhile, Silvergate announced that it had acquired $4.3 billion in Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) and sold about $5.2 billion in loan collateral.
U.S. lawmakers, including Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and John F. Kennedy (R-La), came under pressure in a letter from Silvergate CEO Alan Lane condemning the bank over "cryptocurrency market risks to the traditional banking system . " criticized.
"Congress and the public must and deserve sympathy for Silvergate's role in the collapse of the fraudulent FTX, particularly when Silvergate turned to the Federal Home Loan Bank for lender of last resort in 2022," the officials wrote.
The bank was founded in 1988 but over time has become increasingly involved with digital assets. In early 2022 , it bought assets related to its aborted stablecoin project Dime from Meta for $200 million.
In its most recent earnings statement, Silvergate said it lost $196 million on acquired intellectual property and technology , down 98%. Referring to the current crypto environment, Lane said it would be difficult to launch the planned stablecoin “soon”.
"Given the significant changes in the digital asset industry landscape, this fee reflects the company's belief that SilverGate's blockchain-based payment solutions are not inevitable," said SilverGate.
Shares of Silvergate fell 9% before the close on Thursday and another 2% after the close to $15.44 a share. The price is 93% below the all-time high of $222.13 set in November 2021.