Silvergate Bet Everything on Crypto, Then It All Evaporated (2)

Silvergate Capital Corp. spent its final days under siege.

Bombarded by short sellers, deserted by depositors and shunned by business partners, executives at the crypto-focused bank were face to face with US regulators at its La Jolla, California, headquarters.

Officials from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. had arrived at the firm’s offices, intent on averting the US banking system’s first casualty from the crypto implosion. Among options they discussed were finding crypto-investors to help shore up liquidity amid the bank’s mounting losses. But a desperate round of calls to potential investors failed, with no firm willing to shoulder the burden ...