Silvergate Capital Corp (SI) 2021 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Silvergate Capital Corporation First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Lauren Scott at Silvergate Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，歡迎參加 Silvergate Capital Corporation 2021 年第一季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，此事件正在記錄中。我現在想將會議轉交給 Silvergate 投資者關係部的 Lauren Scott。請繼續。

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate your participation in the Silvergate Capital Corporation First Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. With me here today are Alan Lane, our Chief Executive Officer; Tony Martino, our Chief Financial Officer; and Ben Reynolds, our Chief Strategy Officer. As a reminder, a telephonic replay of this call will be available through 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on May 4, 2021. Access to the replay is also available on the Investor Relations section of our website. Additionally, a slide deck to complement today's discussion is available on the IR section of our website.

謝謝接線員，大家早上好。感謝您參加 Silvergate Capital Corporation 2021 年第一季度財報電話會議。今天和我在一起的還有我們的首席執行官艾倫·萊恩；我們的首席財務官 Tony Martino；和我們的首席戰略官 Ben Reynolds。提醒一下，此電話的電話重播將持續到晚上 11:59。東部時間 2021 年 5 月 4 日。也可以在我們網站的投資者關係部分訪問重播。此外，我們網站的 IR 部分還提供了一個幻燈片來補充今天的討論。

Before we begin, let me remind everyone that this call may contain certain statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include remarks about management's future expectations, beliefs, estimates, plans and prospects. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by such statements. Such risks and other factors are set forth in our periodic and current reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not undertake any duty to update such forward-looking statements.

在開始之前，讓我提醒大家，本次電話會議可能包含構成 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述的某些陳述。其中包括有關管理層未來預期、信念、估計、計劃和前景的評論。此類陳述受各種風險、不確定性和其他因素的影響，包括可能導致實際結果與此類陳述所表明或暗示的結果大不相同的 COVID-19 大流行。這些風險和其他因素在我們提交給證券交易委員會的定期報告和當前報告中列出。我們不承擔更新此類前瞻性陳述的任何義務。

Additionally, during today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP measures, which we believe are useful in evaluating our performance. The presentation of these additional information should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measure can be found in our earnings release. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Alan.

此外，在今天的電話會議中，我們將討論某些非公認會計原則措施，我們認為這些措施有助於評估我們的業績。不應孤立地考慮提供這些附加信息或替代根據美國公認會計原則編制的結果。這些非公認會計原則措施與最具可比性的公認會計原則措施的對賬可以在我們的收益發布中找到。現在我想把電話轉給艾倫。

Thank you, Lauren, and good morning, everyone. We started 2021 on a very strong note, driven by growing demand for our digital currency solutions powered by the Silvergate Exchange Network, or SEN. In the first quarter, activity on the SEN continued to grow at a record pace with nearly 167,000 transactions and more than $166 billion in SEN volumes, up 84% on a sequential basis. Transaction revenue from digital currency customers increased 87% from last quarter to $7.1 million.

謝謝你，勞倫，大家早上好。由於對我們由 Silvergate Exchange Network 或 SEN 提供支持的數字貨幣解決方案的需求不斷增長，我們以非常強勁的勢頭開始了 2021 年。第一季度，SEN 的活動繼續以創紀錄的速度增長，交易量接近 167,000 筆，SEN 交易量超過 1660 億美元，環比增長 84%。來自數字貨幣客戶的交易收入比上一季度增長 87% 至 710 萬美元。

The number of customers on the SEN platform expanded to more than 1,100, representing record sequential growth as we added 135 new customers during the quarter. Importantly, our pipeline of potential new digital currency customers remains robust as we continue to benefit from the strong network effects created by the SEN. Last year, we introduced our collateralized lending product called SEN Leverage, through which institutional investors receive U.S. dollar financing by entering into a loan agreement with Silvergate. And Silvergate uses the SEN to fund the loans.

SEN 平台上的客戶數量擴大到超過 1,100 家，隨著我們在本季度增加了 135 家新客戶，實現了創紀錄的連續增長。重要的是，隨著我們繼續受益於 SEN 創造的強大網絡效應，我們的潛在新數字貨幣客戶渠道仍然強勁。去年，我們推出了名為 SEN Leverage 的抵押貸款產品，機構投資者通過該產品與 Silvergate 簽訂貸款協議，獲得美元融資。 Silvergate 使用 SEN 為貸款提供資金。

We have seen a great deal of market demand. And as of quarter end, we had approved lines of credit totaling $197 million versus $83 million at the end of the year. We are still in the early stages of scaling SEN leverage. And at the end of March, we announced that Coinbase custody and Fidelity digital assets will be 2 new custodians, holding the borrowers bitcoin as collateral in a segregated account. We are very excited about these diverse partnerships and the additional partnerships to come as we create a network of custodians to provide our institutional investor clients with more choice and greater access to capital.

我們看到了大量的市場需求。截至季度末，我們批准的信貸額度總額為 1.97 億美元，而年底時為 8300 萬美元。我們仍處於擴展 SEN 槓桿的早期階段。並且在 3 月底，我們宣布 Coinbase 託管和 Fidelity 數字資產將成為 2 個新的託管人，將藉款人的比特幣作為抵押品存放在一個隔離賬戶中。我們對這些多樣化的合作夥伴關係以及即將到來的其他合作夥伴關係感到非常興奮，因為我們創建了一個託管人網絡，為我們的機構投資者客戶提供更多選擇和更多獲得資本的機會。

As more institutional participants adopt digital currencies, We have also seen an influx of deposits from investors who require the ability to move U.S. dollars in real time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Average deposits from digital currency customers in the first quarter grew by $3.8 billion to $6.4 billion compared to an average of $2.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020. These continued significant deposit increases, coupled with our plans for further strategic growth, including the expansion of SEN Leverage, led us to launch an at-the-market or ATM equity offering in early March.

隨著越來越多的機構參與者採用數字貨幣，我們還看到大量投資者的存款湧入，他們需要每週 7 天、每天 24 小時實時轉移美元的能力。與 2020 年第四季度的平均 26 億美元相比，第一季度來自數字貨幣客戶的平均存款增加了 38 億美元，達到 64 億美元。這些持續顯著的存款增長，加上我們進一步戰略增長的計劃，包括擴大SEN Leverage 帶領我們在 3 月初推出了市場或 ATM 股票發行。

The ATM program allows Silvergate to raise capital efficiently and only when needed, to support our growth and invest in the development of new products to stay on the forefront of the digital currency industry's evolution. I remain incredibly excited about Silvergate's future, which I will discuss further in a few moments after Tony walks you through our financial results. Tony?

ATM 計劃允許 Silvergate 僅在需要時有效地籌集資金，以支持我們的增長並投資於新產品的開發，以保持在數字貨幣行業發展的前沿。我仍然對 Silvergate 的未來感到非常興奮，在托尼向您介紹我們的財務業績後，我將在稍後進一步討論。托尼?

Thank you, Alan, and good morning, everyone. As seen on Slide 4, Silvergate reported first quarter net income of $12.7 million or $0.55 per diluted share, up from net income of $9.1 million or $0.47 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2020 and up from net income of $4.4 million or $0.23 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2020. Increase in both comparisons was primarily driven by revenue growth with an increase in digital currency-related fee income. We also saw higher noninterest expense due to increased investments for strategic growth and higher FDIC insurance expense caused by both the rate of growth and the absolute level of our balance sheet.

謝謝你，艾倫，大家早上好。如幻燈片 4 所示，Silvergate 報告第一季度淨收入為 1270 萬美元或每股攤薄收益 0.55 美元，高於 2020 年第四季度的淨收入 910 萬美元或每股攤薄收益 0.47 美元，高於淨收入 440 萬美元或每股攤薄收益 0.23 美元。 2020 年第一季度的稀釋份額。兩項比較的增長主要是由於收入增長以及與數字貨幣相關的費用收入增加。我們還看到由於對戰略增長的投資增加以及由於增長率和資產負債表的絕對水平導致的 FDIC 保險費用增加，非利息費用增加。

In addition, we had an income tax benefit of $1.2 million for the quarter, which was driven by a $4.1 million or $0.18 per share benefit from stock option exercises in the quarter. Net interest income was up 5% compared to last quarter and up 49% compared to the same period last year. Net interest margin, which I will discuss in more detail in a moment, came in at 1.33%. Our allowance for loan losses remained at $6.9 million, representing 94 basis points relative to loans held for investment.

此外，我們在本季度獲得了 120 萬美元的所得稅收益，這是由本季度股票期權行使帶來的 410 萬美元或每股 0.18 美元的收益推動的。淨利息收入較上一季度增長 5%，較去年同期增長 49%。我稍後會更詳細地討論的淨息差為 1.33%。我們的貸款損失準備金保持在 690 萬美元，相對於為投資而持有的貸款增加了 94 個基點。

Turning to Slide 5. Deposits were $7 billion at March 31, 2021, a significant increase from $5.2 billion at December 31, 2020, driven by an increase in deposits from digital currency exchanges, institutional investors and digital assets and other fintech-related customers with elevated client activity evidenced by the record volumes and transactions during the quarter. As a reminder, Our deposits from digital currency customers can fluctuate as our customers in this industry typically carry higher balances over the weekend to take advantage of the 24/7 availability of the SEN. Noninterest-bearing deposits totaled $6.9 billion, representing approximately 98% of total deposits at the end of the quarter. As we continue to focus our deposit gathering strategy on digital currency customers. As a result, our weighted average cost of deposits for the quarter was essentially 0.

轉到幻燈片 5。截至 2021 年 3 月 31 日，存款為 70 億美元，比 2020 年 12 月 31 日的 52 億美元顯著增加，這是由於數字貨幣交易所、機構投資者和數字資產以及其他金融科技相關客戶的存款增加本季度創紀錄的交易量和交易量證明了客戶活動的增加。提醒一下，我們來自數字貨幣客戶的存款可能會波動，因為我們在這個行業的客戶通常在周末持有更高的餘額，以利用 SEN 的 24/7 可用性。無息存款總額為 69 億美元，約佔本季度末存款總額的 98%。隨著我們繼續將存款收集策略集中在數字貨幣客戶身上。因此，我們本季度的加權平均存款成本基本上為 0。

Turning to Slide 6. Net interest margin was 1.33% for the first quarter compared to 2.85% in the fourth quarter of 2020 and 2.86% for the first quarter of last year. While we grew loans in the quarter, the decline in NIM was driven by higher cash balances in our asset mix as a result of the significant deposit growth I just mentioned. In addition, securities yields were impacted by lower interest rates on new securities purchased during the quarter, reflecting the current interest rate environment.

轉到幻燈片 6。第一季度的淨息差為 1.33%，而 2020 年第四季度為 2.85%，去年第一季度為 2.86%。雖然我們在本季度增加了貸款，但由於我剛才提到的存款顯著增長，我們的資產組合中現金餘額增加，導致淨息差下降。此外，證券收益率受到本季度購買的新證券利率下降的影響，反映了當前的利率環境。

Turning to the next slide, Slide 7. Noninterest income for the first quarter of 2021 was $8.1 million, an increase of $3.2 million or 67% from the prior quarter, driven by an increase in fee income from digital currency customers. Noninterest income increased $3.2 million or 64% from the first quarter of 2020, driven by an increase in fee income from digital currency customers and higher mortgage warehouse fees, partly offset by lower gains on sales of securities, extinguishment of debt and sale of loans. In the first quarter, digital currency fee income was $7.1 million, up 87% sequentially and up 317% year-over-year as we continue to see increased transaction volume from our digital currency customers.

轉到下一張幻燈片，幻燈片 7。由於數字貨幣客戶的費用收入增加，2021 年第一季度的非利息收入為 810 萬美元，比上一季度增加了 320 萬美元或 67%。非利息收入比 2020 年第一季度增加了 320 萬美元，即 64%，這是由於數字貨幣客戶的費用收入增加和抵押倉庫費用增加，部分被證券銷售、債務清償和貸款銷售收益減少所抵消。第一季度，數字貨幣費用收入為 710 萬美元，環比增長 87%，同比增長 317%，因為我們繼續看到數字貨幣客戶的交易量增加。

Turning to Slide 8. Noninterest expense for the quarter was $19.6 million, up $2 million from the fourth quarter of 2020 and up $5.7 million compared to the first quarter of 2020. The increase in both comparisons was driven by continued investments to drive our strategic growth initiatives as well as higher federal deposit insurance expense related to our significant deposit growth.

轉到幻燈片 8。本季度的非利息支出為 1,960 萬美元，比 2020 年第四季度增加 200 萬美元，與 2020 年第一季度相比增加 570 萬美元。兩項比較的增長是由持續投資推動的，以推動我們的戰略增長與我們顯著的存款增長相關的舉措以及更高的聯邦存款保險費用。

Turning to Slide 9. Our securities portfolio totaled $1.7 billion, with a yield of 2.08% for the first quarter, up $780 million from a balance of $939 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2020 with a corresponding yield of 2.43%. Year-over-year, securities increased $750 million. Our total loans at March 31, 2021, were $1.6 million, up $12.9 million, or 0.8% compared to the fourth quarter and up $511.2 million or nearly 46% compared to the first quarter of 2020. Loan balances continued to benefit from strong growth in SEN leverage as well as historically elevated mortgage warehouse balances. Overall, the credit quality of our loan portfolio remains strong. Nonperforming assets totaled $5.3 million or 7 basis points relative to total assets at March 31, 2021, a decrease from 9 basis points relative to total assets at December 31, 2020.

轉到幻燈片 9。我們的證券投資組合總額為 17 億美元，第一季度的收益率為 2.08%，比 2020 年第四季度末的餘額 9.39 億美元增加了 7.8 億美元，相應的收益率為 2.43%。與去年同期相比，證券增加了 7.5 億美元。截至 2021 年 3 月 31 日，我們的貸款總額為 160 萬美元，與第四季度相比增加 1290 萬美元或 0.8%，與 2020 年第一季度相比增加 5.112 億美元或近 46%。貸款餘額繼續受益於強勁增長SEN 槓桿以及歷史上高的抵押倉庫餘額。總體而言，我們的貸款組合的信用質量依然強勁。截至 2021 年 3 月 31 日，不良資產總額為 530 萬美元，相對於總資產減少 7 個基點，相對於 2020 年 12 月 31 日的總資產減少 9 個基點。

On Slide 10, you can see a breakdown of the loan-to-value ratios for our commercial and multifamily real estate loans, along with our 1-4 family residential loans. At the end of the first quarter, our weighted average LTV was 53% in our commercial and multifamily portfolio and 54% in our 1-4 family residential real estate portfolio. As I've said in the past, the levels at which we maintain our portfolios is key to supporting the amount of allowance for loan losses.

在幻燈片 10 上，您可以看到我們的商業和多戶房地產貸款以及 1-4 戶住宅貸款的貸款價值比率明細。在第一季度末，我們的商業和多戶住宅投資組合的加權平均 LTV 為 53%，而 1-4 戶住宅房地產投資組合的加權平均 LTV 為 54%。正如我過去所說，我們維持投資組合的水平是支持貸款損失準備金數額的關鍵。

Slide 11 provides a more detailed view of our loan portfolio and an update on COVID-19 modifications. We continue to work closely with our borrowers to provide support in the current environment. On a case-by-case basis, we provided commercial and 1-4 family borrowers a payment deferral based on demonstrated need. As of March 31, 2021, modifications totaled $65 million or 8.9% of our total loans held for investment.

幻燈片 11 提供了我們貸款組合的更詳細視圖以及 COVID-19 修改的更新。我們將繼續與借款人密切合作，在當前環境下提供支持。根據具體情況，我們根據已證明的需要為商業和 1-4 家庭借款人提供延期付款。截至 2021 年 3 月 31 日，修改總額為 6500 萬美元，占我們持有的投資貸款總額的 8.9%。

Before diving into our capital ratios on Slide 12, I wanted to touch on the 2 equity offerings we completed in 2021. In January, we completed an underwritten public offering of 4.5 million shares at a price of $63 per share with net proceeds to the company of $272.4 million after underwriting discounts and offering expenses. As Alan previously mentioned, we then launched a $300 million at-the-market offering program at the beginning of March. On March 11, we sold nearly 1.3 million shares at an average price of $118.39 under the ATM program. The transaction resulted in net proceeds of $151.1 million.

在深入了解我們在幻燈片 12 上的資本比率之前，我想談談我們在 2021 年完成的 2 次股票發行。1 月份，我們以每股 63 美元的價格完成了 450 萬股的承銷公開發行，公司淨收益扣除承銷折扣和發售費用後為 2.724 億美元。正如 Alan 之前提到的，我們隨後在 3 月初啟動了 3 億美元的市場發售計劃。 3 月 11 日，我們在 ATM 計劃下以平均 118.39 美元的價格出售了近 130 萬股股票。該交易的淨收益為 1.511 億美元。

Now turning to our capital ratios. Our Tier 1 leverage ratio was 9.68% at the company level and 9.5% at the bank level, with the bank ratio well in excess of the 5% minimum ratio to be considered well capitalized under federal banking regulations. Our total risk-based capital ratio of 55.1% (sic) [54.91%] increased significantly compared to last quarter due to the increase in deposits. Our loan-to-deposit ratio was 23.22% at the end of the quarter as loan growth was more than offset by a significant increase in deposits during the quarter.

現在轉向我們的資本比率。我們的一級槓桿比率在公司層面為 9.68%，在銀行層面為 9.5%，銀行比率遠高於聯邦銀行法規下被視為資本充足的 5% 的最低比率。由於存款增加，我們的總風險資本比率為 55.1%（原文如此）[54.91%]，與上一季度相比顯著增加。本季度末我們的貸存比為 23.22%，因為貸款增長被本季度存款的顯著增加所抵消。

With that, I would like to hand it back to Alan for closing remarks.

有了這個，我想把它交還給 Alan 做閉幕詞。

Thanks, Tony. Every day, the digital currency industry is growing rapidly, which is an exciting opportunity for Silvergate to continue to provide innovative solutions to our customers. As you can see on Slide 13, the network effects created by the SEN create multiple avenues for growth from payments to lending to funding. Silvergate remains well positioned to provide critical infrastructure for stablecoin offerings. In addition to foreign currency exchange and cash management solutions for our digital currency deposit customers.

謝謝，托尼。每一天，數字貨幣行業都在快速增長，這對 Silvergate 來說是一個令人興奮的機會，可以繼續為我們的客戶提供創新的解決方案。正如您在幻燈片 13 中看到的那樣，SEN 創造的網絡效應為從支付到貸款再到融資的多種增長途徑創造了條件。 Silvergate 仍然處於為穩定幣產品提供關鍵基礎設施的有利位置。除了為我們的數字貨幣存款客戶提供外幣兌換和現金管理解決方案。

As I mentioned earlier, We continue to expand our SEN Leverage product while creating a network of digital asset custody partners, providing our customers with additional choices and enhanced capital flexibility. We are continuously working to expand our product offerings to provide solutions that our customers are asking for. I believe we are in the early stages of a tremendous opportunity in the digital currency industry and I remain incredibly excited about our path forward. I look forward to sharing additional updates on our strategic growth initiatives in the coming quarters. And with that, I would like to ask the operator to open the line for any questions. Operator?

正如我之前提到的，我們繼續擴展我們的 SEN Leverage 產品，同時創建數字資產託管合作夥伴網絡，為我們的客戶提供更多選擇和增強的資本靈活性。我們不斷努力擴展我們的產品供應，以提供客戶所需的解決方案。我相信我們正處於數字貨幣行業巨大機遇的早期階段，我對我們前進的道路仍然感到非常興奮。我期待在未來幾個季度分享我們戰略增長計劃的更多更新。有了這個，我想請接線員打開線路以解決任何問題。操作員？

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

And our first question today will come from Joseph Vafi with Canaccord.

我們今天的第一個問題將來自 Canaccord 的 Joseph Vafi。

Great to see some nice results here. Maybe we can kind of just first start on the relationships with Fidelity and Coinbase. I know, Alan, you've mentioned there may be some possibility that there may be others in the marketplace. And I think part of your competitive advantage here is your low cost of capital relative to perhaps other lending solutions in the marketplace. So I was wondering if you could kind of expand a little bit more on why these partners chose to partner with you?

很高興在這裡看到一些不錯的結果。也許我們可以先從與 Fidelity 和 Coinbase 的關係開始。我知道，艾倫，你提到市場上可能還有其他人。我認為你的競爭優勢的一部分是相對於市場上的其他貸款解決方案而言，你的資本成本較低。所以我想知道你是否可以進一步解釋為什麼這些合作夥伴選擇與你合作？

And then kind of the larger opportunity here and how you think you'll be able to maybe fulfill what could be quite large demand from these partners relative to your bank model and being able to stay well within your kind of regulatory guidelines? And then maybe I'll have a quick follow-up after that.

然後是這裡更大的機會，以及您認為您將如何滿足這些合作夥伴相對於您的銀行模式可能存在的相當大的需求，並能夠很好地遵守您的監管準則？然後也許我會在此之後進行快速跟進。

Sure. Thanks for the question, Joe. So yes, we are very excited about the partnerships with Coinbase Custody and Fidelity Digital Assets. I've talked about this a little bit here recently. The fact that what we're really trying to do is create a network of custodians that are partnering with Silvergate and then partnering with our respective customers so that our customers have more choice. And essentially, one of the biggest risks in digital assets is when you're moving the digital asset because as you know, bitcoin is a digital bearer asset.

當然。謝謝你的問題，喬。所以，是的，我們對與 Coinbase Custody 和 Fidelity Digital Assets 的合作感到非常興奮。我最近在這裡談到了一點。事實上，我們真正想做的是創建一個託管人網絡，這些託管人與 Silvergate 合作，然後與我們各自的客戶合作，以便我們的客戶有更多選擇。本質上，數字資產的最大風險之一是當你移動數字資產時，因為眾所周知，比特幣是一種數字無記名資產。

And so if you've got your Bitcoin in custody somewhere, And you trust that custodian, then you don't really want to move it from one custodian to another. And so our vision for this is that we will create a network of custodians to offer our customers more choice so that if they've already chosen Coinbase Custody as their preferred custodian partner or if they've chosen Fidelity or one of our first partners, Bitstamp or Anchorage, and as you mentioned -- and as I mentioned earlier, we've got others in the pipeline, our customers will not have to move their bitcoin in order to borrow against it.

因此，如果你在某個地方保管了你的比特幣，並且你信任那個保管人，那麼你真的不想將它從一個保管人轉移到另一個保管人。因此，我們對此的願景是，我們將創建一個託管人網絡，為我們的客戶提供更多選擇，以便如果他們已經選擇 Coinbase Custody 作為他們首選的託管合作夥伴，或者如果他們選擇了 Fidelity 或我們的第一個合作夥伴之一， Bitstamp 或 Anchorage，正如你所提到的——正如我之前提到的，我們還有其他人正在籌備中，我們的客戶將不必為了借錢而轉移他們的比特幣。

So it's -- these are, again, foundational building blocks so that we can really ramp this up. And the actual number growth in terms of the outstandings, are right on target. We're actually a little ahead of target, I would say, thanks to the ability to raise capital, which gives us the opportunity to grow a little bit more quickly. But that's the vision. And let me ask Ben if he has anything he wants to add to that before we move on to the next question.

所以它 - 這些再次是基礎構建塊，因此我們可以真正提升它。就未償還項目而言，實際數量增長是正確的。我想說，我們實際上比目標提前了一點，這要歸功於籌集資金的能力，這讓我們有機會更快地增長。但這就是願景。在我們繼續討論下一個問題之前，讓我問一下 Ben 他是否有什麼想要補充的。

Yes. Thanks, Alan. Yes. So For those that may have missed it, we announced these partnerships with Coinbase and Fidelity during March. And so those came kind of late in the quarter, and we didn't really see additional commitments as related -- as part of those relationships in the first quarter. But we are extremely excited about this next iteration of the product. which will allow our customers to post additional collateral within a 24-hour window, while ensuring that Silvergate has possession of the bitcoin and the ability to liquidate it if need be.

是的。謝謝，艾倫。是的。因此，對於那些可能錯過的人，我們在 3 月份宣布了與 Coinbase 和 Fidelity 的這些合作夥伴關係。所以這些都是在本季度晚些時候出現的，我們並沒有真正看到額外的承諾是相關的——作為第一季度這些關係的一部分。但我們對產品的下一次迭代感到非常興奮。這將允許我們的客戶在 24 小時內發布額外的抵押品，同時確保 Silvergate 擁有比特幣並在需要時能夠清算它。

So the benefit of these relationships to Silvergate is it both Coinbase and Fidelity have a diverse group of existing customers that are long bitcoin looking for leverage and may not be existing customers of Silvergate. So it gives us another avenue to grow our customer base. I think part of your question, Joe, was around framing the opportunity. And so one way that we look at that is that the total market value of bitcoin grew by approximately $500 billion during the first quarter alone.

因此，這些關係對 Silvergate 的好處在於，Coinbase 和 Fidelity 都擁有多元化的現有客戶群，他們是長期比特幣尋求槓桿，可能不是 Silvergate 的現有客戶。因此，它為我們提供了另一種擴大客戶群的途徑。喬，我認為你的問題的一部分是圍繞著構建機會。因此，我們看待這一點的一種方式是，僅在第一季度，比特幣的總市值就增長了約 5000 億美元。

And at the same time, we're not aware of any significant new competitors that are willing to provide U.S. dollar funding that's collateralized by bitcoin. So while the asset values of bitcoin and the demand for leverage increased significantly, the supply of U.S. dollars for funding of the leverage remain constant. So as Alan mentioned, we're really excited about the opportunity going forward. The last thing I'll say on this topic is that as of quarter end, we had less than 10% of our existing 695 institutional investor customers that were utilizing the product. And we believe that almost all of them are still looking for more efficient capital.

同時，我們不知道有任何重要的新競爭對手願意提供以比特幣為抵押的美元資金。因此，雖然比特幣的資產價值和對槓桿的需求顯著增加，但用於槓桿融資的美元供應量保持不變。正如艾倫所說，我們對未來的機會感到非常興奮。我要就此主題說的最後一件事是，截至季度末，我們現有的 695 名機構投資者客戶中使用該產品的不到 10%。而且我們相信，幾乎所有人仍在尋找更高效的資本。

And our next question will come from Michael Perito with KBW.

我們的下一個問題將來自 KBW 的 Michael Perito。

I want to start on the balance sheet. I mean It's -- over 2/3 of the average earning assets in cash, obviously doesn't seem like something that I imagine would be the case longer term. I mean I know you guys are conservative when levering these digital currency deposits as they come in. But at the same time, seeing you guys raise the capital and I think your deposits were only 1% of the dollars moved on an annualized basis on the SEN in the first quarter. So I mean, it doesn't seem like the deposit base is overly elevated or inflated here. So I'm just curious if you can give us any update on how you guys are thinking about the liquidity position of the bank and what we can expect in terms of timing as that is deployed? And I guess I'll start there and ask my follow-up after.

我想從資產負債表開始。我的意思是——超過平均收入資產的 2/3 以現金形式，顯然我認為從長遠來看不會是這樣。我的意思是我知道你們在利用這些數字貨幣存款時是保守的。但與此同時，看到你們籌集資金，我認為你們的存款僅占美元年化變動的 1% SEN 在第一季度。所以我的意思是，這裡的存款基礎似乎並沒有被過度抬高或膨脹。所以我很好奇你們能否向我們提供任何關於你們如何看待銀行流動性狀況的最新信息，以及我們在部署時間方面的預期？我想我會從那裡開始，然後問我的後續行動。

Sure. Let me touch a little bit on the loan portfolio portion of the balance sheet, and then I'll ask Tony to comment on the securities portfolio. But first, you're absolutely right, Mike. I mean we would absolutely hope to grow the loan portfolio over time. And I would say the primary area of growth would be the area we just talked about in answering the previous question around looking at SEN Leverage, where we're really, at a high level, we're looking to take these digital currency deposits and redeploy them back into the cryptocurrency ecosystem. And in order to do that, we want to make sure that we have a diverse group of partners with whom we are spreading the risk, if you will, on the digital asset custody front.

當然。讓我稍微談談資產負債表的貸款組合部分，然後我會請託尼對證券組合發表評論。但首先，你是絕對正確的，邁克。我的意思是我們絕對希望隨著時間的推移增加貸款組合。我想說，增長的主要領域將是我們剛剛在回答上一個關於 SEN 槓桿的問題時談到的領域，我們確實在高水平上，我們希望獲得這些數字貨幣存款和將它們重新部署回加密貨幣生態系統。為了做到這一點，我們希望確保我們擁有多元化的合作夥伴群體，如果您願意的話，我們會在數字資產託管方面與他們一起分散風險。

And then the other area, which we've been really pleased to see some growth in over the last few quarters is in our mortgage warehouse area, which as we've talked about in the past, is a very good complement to the potential short duration on the deposit side. It is very difficult to grow mortgage warehouse because it's really more -- we're kind of at the whims of the refi market at this point. But we're growing our commitment lines with existing customers and then adding customers there as well. So those are the 2 areas that I think you can continue to expect growth would be SEN Leverage and mortgage warehouse. And let me ask Tony to comment on the securities portfolio.

然後我們非常高興地看到過去幾個季度有所增長的另一個領域是我們的抵押倉庫區，正如我們過去所談到的，它是對潛在空頭的一個很好的補充存款方面的持續時間。增加抵押倉庫非常困難，因為它實際上更多——我們現在有點隨心所欲地在 refi 市場上。但是我們正在與現有客戶增加我們的承諾線，然後在那裡增加客戶。因此，我認為您可以繼續預期增長的兩個領域是 SEN 槓桿和抵押倉庫。讓我請託尼對證券投資組合發表評論。

Sure. Thanks, Alan. Good morning, Mike. So as you may have alluded, for us, high quality and flexibility are more important factors than short-term yields. And you'll note 98% of our portfolio -- of our investment portfolio was rated AA or AAA. So we've invested significantly over the quarter. We -- our portfolio has increased to about $1.7 billion. It was more weighted towards the end of the portfolio and about 2/3 of that -- of those purchases were at adjustable rates. So as I said and as Alan alluded to, the focus continues to be in diversification. Some leverage gives us a nice yields on the lending side. It's balanced with the securities. But we've also kind of given you an indication of a high low on the deposits. And so we want to maintain a good liquidity profile Having said that, we do have a lot of secondary liquidity borrowing capacity available. So we do have opportunity to increase the investment portfolio.

當然。謝謝，艾倫。早上好，邁克。因此，正如您可能提到的，對我們而言，高質量和靈活性是比短期收益更重要的因素。你會注意到我們 98% 的投資組合——我們的投資組合被評為 AA 或 AAA。因此，我們在本季度進行了大量投資。我們——我們的投資組合已增加到約 17 億美元。在投資組合的末尾，它的權重更大，其中約 2/3 的購買是按可調整的利率購買的。因此，正如我所說和艾倫所暗示的那樣，重點仍然是多樣化。一些槓桿在藉貸方面給我們帶來了不錯的收益。它與證券相平衡。但我們也向您提供了存款高低的跡象。因此，我們希望保持良好的流動性狀況話雖如此，我們確實有很多二級流動性借貸能力可用。所以我們確實有機會增加投資組合。

And that -- and that is a -- it sounds like an ongoing process. I mean, obviously, the period end investment book, like you said, hit north of $1.7 billion. I mean it's fair for us to think that, that process has continued as the last few weeks have transpired. And I guess, the reason I'm harping on it just because, I mean, there's -- I got sort of a fine line right between conservatism and leaving a lot of dollars on the table that can be reinvested for growth, et cetera. So just kind of curious if that process has continued as it looks like it has towards the end of the first quarter based on the end-of-period balance sheet?

這 - 這就是 - 這聽起來像是一個持續的過程。我的意思是，很明顯，正如你所說，期末投資賬簿達到了 17 億美元以上。我的意思是，我們可以公平地認為，隨著過去幾週的發展，這一過程仍在繼續。而且我想，我之所以喋喋不休，只是因為，我的意思是，我在保守主義和在桌面上留下大量可以再投資用於增長的美元之間有一條很好的界限，等等。所以有點好奇，根據期末資產負債表，這個過程是否像在第一季度末那樣繼續下去？

Yes.

是的。

Yes -- I'm sorry, Tony, let me jump back in here for a second, because you're absolutely right, Mike. We are walking that line between conservatism and not wanting to leave money on the table. Having said that, I've been in this industry, in this banking industry for 40 years. And we want to be prudence and prudent doesn't mean we're cowering here. But if and when rates start to rise, we want to make sure that we haven't stretched for yield in the lowest possible interest rate environment in my career.

是的——對不起，托尼，讓我跳回這裡，因為你完全正確，邁克。我們正在保守主義和不想把錢留在桌子上之間走那條線。話雖如此，我已經在這個行業，在這個銀行業工作了 40 年。我們要謹慎，謹慎並不意味著我們在這裡畏縮。但是，如果當利率開始上升時，我們要確保在我職業生涯中可能處於最低利率的環境中，我們沒有為收益率而捉襟見肘。

And so we are -- as the deposits grow and we are comfortable that they're stable. And we're getting a good feel for the opportunity with SEN Leverage, with mortgage warehouse We are stepping out in the investment portfolio, and you've seen some of the results of that in the first quarter, and that will continue. And again, we're balancing between some adjustable rate securities and then going out for some longer term to get a little bit of yield but always mindful of the overall interest rate risk exposure on the balance sheet.

所以我們 - 隨著存款的增長，我們對它們的穩定感到滿意。我們對 SEN Leverage 和抵押倉庫的機會有了很好的感覺。我們正在退出投資組合，你已經在第一季度看到了一些結果，而且這種情況將繼續下去。再一次，我們在一些可調整利率證券之間進行平衡，然後長期投資以獲得一點收益，但始終注意資產負債表上的整體利率風險敞口。

Very helpful. And point taken as well, Alan. So I appreciate the comments and Tony as well. Just one last one for me. I was curious if you can give a little bit more color. The digital currency-related fee growth was really strong in the quarter. Obviously, you guys added a lot of customers. The pipeline seems as strong as it's been probably in the last few years for more customers. Can you maybe just break out a little bit more what some of the bigger drivers of that increase were? I'm curious if there's any pickup or expected pickup from kind of the stable point payment stuff you guys are doing that could potentially be additive to that as the year progresses here? Any additional color there would be great.

很有幫助。還有一點，艾倫。所以我很欣賞這些評論和托尼。對我來說只有最後一個。我很好奇你能不能給更多的顏色。本季度與數字貨幣相關的費用增長非常強勁。顯然，你們增加了很多客戶。對於更多客戶來說，這條管道似乎和過去幾年一樣強大。你能不能再詳細說明一下這種增長的一些更大的驅動因素是什麼？我很好奇，隨著時間的推移，你們正在做的穩定點支付的東西是否有任何提貨或預期的提貨可能會增加這一點？任何額外的顏色都會很棒。

Yes. Thanks for pointing out the growth in fee income because that's something that we've -- our team has really been working hard on, and it's great to see that coming to path here. And it is in the areas that we've historically mentioned. biggest growth area is cash management fees. And as you can imagine, while we don't charge for SEN. And so when you see that explosive growth in SEN transactions, you can anticipate that there's been a lot of movement in addition to SEN wires and ACH activity coming and going. in the first quarter, that has attributed to the growth in fee income. But we've also had strong growth in the foreign currency exchange area. And then I will say that we haven't seen a lot of growth in stablecoin yet. That is something that is -- that we are working around the clock on with some pretty exciting opportunities. Unfortunately, we're not in a position to share anything there at this time. But we do see the stablecoin opportunity as an opportunity to significantly grow our fee income in the future.

是的。感謝您指出費用收入的增長，因為這是我們已經完成的事情——我們的團隊一直在努力工作，很高興看到這一點來到這裡。它是在我們歷史上提到的領域。最大的增長領域是現金管理費。正如您可以想像的那樣，雖然我們不收取 SEN 費用。因此，當您看到 SEN 交易的爆炸式增長時，您可以預期除了 SEN 電彙和 ACH 活動來來去去之外，還有很多變化。在第一季度，這歸因於手續費收入的增長。但我們在外匯兌換領域也有強勁增長。然後我會說，我們還沒有看到穩定幣有很大的增長。這就是——我們正在晝夜不停地工作，提供一些非常令人興奮的機會。不幸的是，我們目前無法在那里分享任何內容。但我們確實將穩定幣的機會視為未來顯著增加我們的費用收入的機會。

And our next question will come from George Sutton with Craig-Hallum.

我們的下一個問題將來自 George Sutton 和 Craig-Hallum。

So with the $660-plus billion run rate for this network size, I'm curious how you think of the growth there. Are you -- do you look at it from a run rate perspective as we look out to Q2 and Q3 and building from there? And then as I look at your Slide 13, and apologies for anybody who doesn't have that up, but you sort of list the different opportunities for growth. I'm curious, and maybe this is a best question for Ben is what does this slide look like in 6 months?

因此，對於這種網絡規模的運行速度超過 660 億美元，我很好奇你如何看待那裡的增長。當我們展望第二季度和第三季度並從那裡開始建設時，您是否從運行率的角度來看待它？然後當我查看您的幻燈片 13 時，為沒有提供此內容的任何人道歉，但您列出了不同的增長機會。我很好奇，對於 Ben 來說，最好的問題是這張幻燈片在 6 個月後會是什麼樣子？

Yes, George. Before I ask Ben to comment on the second part of your question there, I do just want to say so on what might be -- you might be referring to Slide 3 for the first part of your question, which is that explosive growth in SEN transfers in the first quarter, which was $166 billion in the first quarter. We expect that ramp to continue. So we're candidly not looking at it as a run rate per se. But as another stop on the journey with more growth, and part of the reason we have confidence in saying that is because of the customers that we added during the first quarter. We added more customers in the first quarter of 2021 than we've added in any other quarter in -- since we've been doing this business. And even with that, our pipeline is as strong or stronger than it's been in the last year or so. And so there are just a lot more folks coming into this space. And as you're aware from previous conversations that we've had, it takes a while for these customers to get onboarded to those that are going to code to the API, so they can participate in the SEN. And so we just see that growth rate continuing. And now let me turn it over to Ben for the question on Slide 13.

是的，喬治。在我讓 Ben 對你的問題的第二部分發表評論之前，我只想說一下可能是什麼——你可能指的是幻燈片 3 的問題的第一部分，即 SEN 的爆炸性增長第一季度轉移，第一季度為 1660 億美元。我們預計這種增長將繼續。因此，我們坦率地不將其視為運行速度本身。但是，作為增長更多的旅程的另一站，我們有信心這麼說的部分原因是因為我們在第一季度增加了客戶。我們在 2021 年第一季度增加的客戶比我們在任何其他季度增加的客戶都多——因為我們一直在做這項業務。即便如此，我們的管道與去年左右一樣強大或強大。所以有更多的人進入這個領域。正如您從我們之前的對話中了解到的那樣，這些客戶需要一段時間才能加入那些將編寫 API 代碼的客戶，以便他們可以參與 SEN。所以我們只是看到這種增長率還在繼續。現在讓我把幻燈片 13 上的問題交給 Ben。

Yes. So as Tony mentioned, part of the increase in expenses during the quarter was caused by increases in R&D costs that we've had associated with new products that we're planning to launch in the coming quarters. We don't have any new products to announce today, but launching new products is something that we see as a critical piece of our growth strategy. We're really focused on adding value for our customers by creating products that solve problems for them and a sustainable competitive advantage for us. Which means you won't see us spending millions of dollars in CapEx to build solutions that already exist in the marketplace. But instead, we'll build upon our existing platform of which SEN is a key piece of that to create new solutions for customers that solve their pain points.

是的。因此，正如托尼所說，本季度費用增加的部分原因是我們計劃在未來幾個季度推出的新產品相關的研發成本增加。我們今天沒有要宣布的新產品，但推出新產品是我們增長戰略的關鍵部分。我們真正專注於為我們的客戶創造價值，為他們創造解決問題的產品，為我們創造可持續的競爭優勢。這意味著您不會看到我們在資本支出上花費數百萬美元來構建市場上已經存在的解決方案。但相反，我們將在現有平台的基礎上構建，其中 SEN 是其中的關鍵部分，為客戶創建新的解決方案以解決他們的痛點。

I think it's important to note that last quarter, we announced our custody offering, which we really see as a foundational piece of infrastructure that's required to scale our lending and stablecoin initiatives. So today, just as a reminder, Silvergate provides each of the 4 regulated U.S.-based stablecoin issuers with 24/7 mint and burn capabilities over the SEN. That's a critical piece of infrastructure for the nature of commerce and payments. So we'll look to expand those capabilities in the coming quarters and remain excited about the incredible opportunity in front of us to transform payments and the role that SEN can play in that.

我認為重要的是要注意上個季度，我們宣布了託管服務，我們確實將其視為擴展我們的貸款和穩定幣計劃所需的基礎設施。因此，今天，作為提醒，Silvergate 為 4 家受監管的美國穩定幣發行人中的每一個提供超過 SEN 的 24/7 的鑄造和銷毀能力。這是商業和支付性質的關鍵基礎設施。因此，我們希望在未來幾個季度擴大這些能力，並對我們面前改變支付方式的難以置信的機會以及 SEN 在其中可以發揮的作用感到興奮。

So when you look at this -- at Slide 13 we have some pretty significant areas of potential growth there. So I wouldn't say that there's anything to add to it at this point, but we think that the TAM associated with several of those opportunities is quite significant and enough to keep us busy for the rest of the year.

所以當你看到這個時——在幻燈片 13 中，我們有一些非常重要的潛在增長領域。所以我不會說在這一點上還有什麼要補充的，但我們認為與其中幾個機會相關的 TAM 非常重要，足以讓我們在今年剩下的時間裡忙碌起來。

Great. One other quick question, if I could. You added 135 customers, which is up nicely. I'm curious what investments you're making to continue to increase that potential number? It looks like you've never suffered for -- from the demand side from what we can tell. It's really the ability to bring those customers on board. So I'm just curious how much expansion and capacity you're building there.

偉大的。如果可以的話，還有一個快速的問題。您添加了 135 個客戶，這很好。我很好奇你正在做哪些投資來繼續增加這個潛在的數字？看起來您從未遭受過痛苦——從我們所知道的需求方面來看。這真的是讓這些客戶參與進來的能力。所以我只是好奇你在那裡建立了多少擴展和容量。

Yes, George, we really -- we don't have a bottleneck. Back in 2017, for those on the call that were following us back then, we absolutely, during that last crypto bull market, our pipeline, a lot of our prospective customers were calling at a waiting list. That does not happen in this environment. We have a very strong team. We can onboard customers as quickly as they can get us the information. It is -- this is an institutional offering. So it's a little bit different than a consumer platform. There are different standards for banking institutions.

是的，喬治，我們真的——我們沒有瓶頸。早在 2017 年，對於那些在電話中關注我們的人來說，我們絕對是在最後一次加密牛市期間，我們的管道，我們的許多潛在客戶都在等待名單上。在這種環境中不會發生這種情況。我們有一個非常強大的團隊。我們可以盡快讓客戶為我們提供信息。它是 - 這是一個機構產品。所以它與消費者平台有點不同。銀行機構有不同的標準。

And so as quickly as they can get us the information. And we have invested in technology. There's fully electronic. Folks can apply on the website. Obviously, we don't have branches. They upload the necessary entity documents. We've got a sandbox for the API that they can actually start playing with before they even show up to open an account. So we've got the people and the technology to expand the customer base as quickly as they show up. So that's not a bottleneck at all. And Ben, have I missed anything in that area?

因此，他們可以盡快為我們提供信息。我們在技術上進行了投資。有全電子的。人們可以在網站上申請。顯然，我們沒有分支機構。他們上傳必要的實體文件。我們為 API 提供了一個沙盒，他們甚至可以在他們出現開戶之前就開始使用它。因此，我們擁有人員和技術，可以在客戶出現時盡快擴大客戶群。所以這根本不是瓶頸。還有本，我在這方面有遺漏什麼嗎？

No. I think that's -- nothing to add on my part.

不，我認為這對我來說沒什麼可補充的。

And our next question will come from David Chiaverini with Wedbush Securities.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Wedbush Securities 的 David Chiaverini。

A couple of questions for you. I guess, starting with a follow-up on the securities portfolio. You mentioned that 2/3 of the purchases were adjustable rates, which I'm assuming we're at lower yields. Are you able to share what securities yields you're putting them on the books at?

幾個問題問你。我想，首先是對證券投資組合的跟進。您提到 2/3 的購買是可調整的利率，我假設我們的收益率較低。您能否分享您將其記入賬簿的證券收益率？

Yes, I'll go ahead and let Tony address that one. Thanks, Tony.

是的，我會繼續讓托尼解決那個問題。謝謝，托尼。

Yes. Thanks for the question, David. Yes. No, in terms of the securities portfolio, the reference is. At year-end, about half of our portfolio was fixed rate, half of it was variable rate. And from -- I won't comment on individual securities, but the majority of the securities are agency mortgage-backed securities. So I think that could give you kind of a good sense of what the yield would be. And as Alan said in the previous comments, I mean, where timing is a factor here in terms of how much you're going to invest in a period of time. So we're looking across the yield curve and planning accordingly. So hopefully, that answers the question sufficiently.

是的。謝謝你的問題，大衛。是的。不，就證券組合而言，參考是。到年底，我們的投資組合中約有一半是固定利率，一半是浮動利率。而且，我不會對個別證券發表評論，但大多數證券都是機構抵押貸款支持證券。所以我認為這可以讓你很好地了解產量。正如艾倫在之前的評論中所說，我的意思是，就你將在一段時間內投資多少而言，時間是一個因素。因此，我們正在查看收益率曲線並進行相應的規劃。因此，希望這充分回答了這個問題。

Great. And then moving on to SEN Leverage, a follow-up there. You mentioned about -- Ben mentioned about less than 10% of the 695 institutions are currently taking advantage of that product. How much -- how does the pipeline look for SEN Leverage? And where do you think that 10% could go in terms of indications of interest from your customer base?

偉大的。然後轉到 SEN Leverage，這是後續行動。您提到過——Ben 提到，目前 695 家機構中只有不到 10% 的機構正在利用該產品。多少——管道如何尋找 SEN 槓桿？您認為這 10% 的客戶群對您有興趣嗎？

Yes. I think Ben mentioned, we've got a pretty strong pipeline. I don't know, Ben, if you want to take that any further.

是的。我想本提到過，我們有一個非常強大的管道。我不知道，本，如果你想更進一步。

Yes. So I mean, one of the things -- when you look at the industry as a whole, prime brokerage and just the supply of U.S. dollars for funding of leverage is really constrained and at a time when the asset class is growing significantly. So the institutional investors that we serve truly are institutions and as they trade other asset classes, they're using leverage in multiple different ways. And so it's just so early. And from talking with our customers, almost all of them are looking for greater capital efficiency and looking for leverage of some type. And so it's hard to estimate, David, like what that could go to? Is it 50%? Is it 80%? Is it 95%, it's hard to say. But from the conversations that we're having, we think it's 80% or higher. And so we're going to look to continue to roll it out in a prudent way as we have thus far.

是的。所以我的意思是，其中一件事——當你把整個行業看成一個整體時，大宗經紀業務以及僅用於槓桿融資的美元供應確實受到了限制，而此時資產類別正在顯著增長。因此，我們真正服務的機構投資者是機構，當他們交易其他資產類別時，他們以多種不同的方式使用槓桿。所以現在還為時過早。通過與我們的客戶交談，幾乎所有人都在尋求更高的資本效率並尋求某種類型的槓桿作用。所以很難估計，大衛，這會是什麼？是50%嗎？是80%嗎？是不是95%，很難說。但從我們正在進行的對話來看，我們認為它是 80% 或更高。因此，我們將尋求繼續以謹慎的方式推出它，就像我們迄今為止所做的那樣。

Great. And then my last question is more of a big picture question. Just on the competitive environment, are you hearing of any new entrants, whether large or small, considering getting into the space or on the cusp of getting into the space? And what are you doing to improve your moat if that occurs?

偉大的。然後我的最後一個問題更像是一個全局問題。就競爭環境而言，您是否聽說有任何新進入者，無論大小，考慮進入該領域或即將進入該領域？如果發生這種情況，您將採取什麼措施來改善您的護城河？

Yes. We occasionally hear of banks that are interested in coming into the space. Having said that, I've also participated in a couple of webinars where people are presenting -- folks in the industry are presenting the banks. And I can tell you, it seems like it's still pretty far away in terms of the most bankers' understanding of this space. And so I think there's still a pretty big gap. So we're not seeing a lot of new entrants. And David, I would say that our competitive advantage is and remains the SEN. The network effect that the SEN provides. And every time we add a customer, we have 135 customers in the first quarter. And not only do each of those new entrants get incredible value from participating in the SEN, but adding them also creates incremental value for every other network participant who is already on the SEN.

是的。我們偶爾會聽到有興趣進入該領域的銀行。話雖如此，我還參加了一些網絡研討會，人們在其中展示——業內人士正在展示銀行。我可以告訴你，就大多數銀行家對這個領域的理解而言，這似乎還很遙遠。所以我認為還有很大的差距。所以我們沒有看到很多新進入者。大衛，我想說我們的競爭優勢是並且仍然是 SEN。 SEN 提供的網絡效應。而且每增加一個客戶，我們第一季度就有135個客戶。不僅這些新進入者中的每一個都從參與 SEN 中獲得了難以置信的價值，而且添加它們還為每個已經加入 SEN 的其他網絡參與者創造了增量價值。

And then as we add things like SEN Leverage, we started a couple of years ago, adding foreign currency exchange and then adding SEN Leverage to provide additional products that our customers are using in conjunction with the SEN, it just makes them that much stickier. And so I can't think of a better moat than a network effect. And creating a network of custodians for SEN Leverage will just be a further deepening of that moat because once you're on the SEN and you've got the ability to move U.S. dollars 24/7, and then you also have the ability to borrow and keep your bitcoin at your custodian of choice, I think that's just going to be an incredibly strong and deep moat.

然後，當我們添加諸如 SEN 槓桿之類的東西時，我們在幾年前開始添加外匯兌換，然後添加 SEN 槓桿以提供我們的客戶與 SEN 一起使用的其他產品，這只會讓它們變得更具粘性。所以我想不出比網絡效應更好的護城河了。為 SEN Leverage 創建一個託管人網絡只會進一步加深護城河，因為一旦您使用 SEN，您就可以 24/7 移動美元，然後您也可以藉入並將您的比特幣保留在您選擇的保管人處，我認為這將是一條非常堅固和深邃的護城河。

And our next question will come from Mike Del Grosso with Compass Point.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Compass Point 的 Mike Del Grosso。

Congrats on a nice quarter. My question is around Slide 13, some of the stablecoin deposits and infrastructure. If I look at the total market cap of stablecoins outstanding quarter-over-quarter, it looks like they grew a bit faster than your digital currency deposit growth this quarter. Is there a portion of that market you're going after? Or can you provide some color perhaps on some of the market segmentation from a deposit standpoint?

祝賀一個不錯的季度。我的問題是關於幻燈片 13，一些穩定幣存款和基礎設施。如果我看一下穩定幣的總市值環比，看起來它們的增長速度比你本季度的數字貨幣存款增長快一點。有你想要的那個市場的一部分嗎？或者您能否從存款的角度為某些市場細分提供一些顏色？

Yes, Mike, that's a very good observation, and I really appreciate that question because it allows us to emphasize where we are participating in this stablecoin opportunity. And that is on the transactional side. And going back to my answer to the previous question, the SEN network and the ability for our customers to buy and sell stablecoins and importantly, for the issuers of those stablecoins to mint and burn stablecoins, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via the Silvergate API. We mentioned earlier that Silvergate is the transactional bank for all of the U.S. regulated stablecoin issuers, which is USDC issued by Circle and Coinbase. And then you also have the PACs dollar, the Gemini dollar and TrueUSD. All of them are SEN participants, all of them mint and burn their dollar tokens with the Silvergate API and the Silvergate Exchange Network.

是的，邁克，這是一個非常好的觀察結果，我非常感謝這個問題，因為它讓我們能夠強調我們在哪裡參與了這個穩定幣的機會。那是在交易方面。回到我對上一個問題的回答，SEN 網絡以及我們的客戶買賣穩定幣的能力，重要的是，這些穩定幣的發行人每週 7 天、每天 24 小時通過銀門 API。我們之前提到，Silvergate 是美國所有受監管的穩定幣發行方的交易銀行，即 Circle 和 Coinbase 發行的 USDC。然後你還有 PACs 美元、Gemini 美元和 TrueUSD。他們都是 SEN 參與者，他們都使用 Silvergate API 和 Silvergate 交換網絡鑄造和燒毀他們的美元代幣。

And what we aren't doing is we are not seeking to hold the billions of dollars in excess deposits that are the reserves for those stable coins. We're not seeking to hold those on our balance sheet and to tie this back to some of the questions that we've had around our net interest margin and against the yield and the large cash balances, if we were also trying to be the reserve bank for those U.S. dollars backing the stablecoins, our balance sheet could be double or triple the size that it is now, but we're in the lowest interest rate environment in my lifetime. And there's not a lot of places that you can go to earn yield on that excess cash other than some of the areas that we're already in and that we're growing, such as SEN Leverage.

我們沒有做的是我們不尋求持有數十億美元的超額存款，這些超額存款是這些穩定幣的儲備。如果我們也試圖成為為那些支持穩定幣的美元儲備銀行，我們的資產負債表可能是現在的兩倍或三倍，但我們處於我一生中最低的利率環境中。除了我們已經進入並且正在發展的一些領域（例如 SEN Leverage）之外，沒有多少地方可以從多餘的現金中賺取收益。

And so this is just a long-winded way of saying that we do not want to be the reserve bank for those deposits. We're providing critical infrastructure, and we're happy to let our customers seek other partners, if you will, to hold those balances and earn interest on them because the stablecoin issuers is something that might not be obvious to everybody is the fact that the stablecoin issuers are -- in order to have a viable business, they actually need to earn interest. In many ways, they're like a bank, but without a license, right? And so they need a banking partner. But what they're attempting to do is earn interest on those deposits. And we don't pay interest. We are primarily the transactional bank. And so let me pause there before going on further and see if that answered your question or if you have a follow-up.

因此，這只是一種冗長的說法，即我們不想成為這些存款的儲備銀行。我們正在提供關鍵的基礎設施，如果您願意，我們很高興讓我們的客戶尋求其他合作夥伴來持有這些餘額並從中賺取利息，因為穩定幣發行人可能對每個人來說都不是顯而易見的事實是穩定幣發行人是——為了有一個可行的業務，他們實際上需要賺取利息。在很多方面，它們就像銀行，但沒有執照，對吧？所以他們需要一個銀行合作夥伴。但他們試圖做的是從這些存款中賺取利息。而且我們不支付利息。我們主要是交易銀行。所以讓我在繼續之前暫停一下，看看這是否回答了你的問題，或者你是否有後續行動。

No, that's really helpful. I think there was an announcement this morning and so -- from one of the stablecoin issuers. And so it's helpful to know that maybe those aren't exclusive relationships and that you're targeting more of the transactional nature. So that's helpful color.

不，這真的很有幫助。我想今天早上有一個公告，所以——來自一個穩定幣發行人。因此，了解這些可能不是排他性關係並且您的目標更多是交易性質是有幫助的。所以這是有用的顏色。

My follow-up is on a broader question on digital currencies and commerce. I mean this morning, we got an announcement out of PayPal noting that bitcoin purchases will now be enabled on Venmo. So I mean, from my seat, that's a pretty significant milestone in terms of broader adoption. I think we can all understand the relationship between your institutional investor customers and the exchanges and how the SEN provides value there. But can you briefly outline what the role of Silvergate is and help me understand how Silvergate plays into some of the interactions when these payment platforms make some of these announcements? How does Silvergate fit in and potentially enabling commerce?

我的後續行動是關於數字貨幣和商業的更廣泛的問題。我的意思是今天早上，我們從 PayPal 那裡得到了一個公告，指出現在將在 Venmo 上啟用比特幣購買。所以我的意思是，從我的角度來看，就更廣泛的採用而言，這是一個非常重要的里程碑。我想我們都可以理解你的機構投資者客戶和交易所之間的關係，以及 SEN 如何在那裡提供價值。但是，您能否簡要概述 Silvergate 的作用，並幫助我了解 Silvergate 在這些支付平台發布這些公告時如何參與其中的一些交互？ Silvergate 如何融入並可能促成商業？

Yes. I'm going to ask Ben to jump in here on that in just a second. But at a high level, Let me just say that, first of all, I did see that announcement from Venmo. And as you know, that was anticipated as kind of the next step. But all of those institutional players who are providing the ability for their customers to buy bitcoin, they need to source that bitcoin somewhere, and they're likely going to need to source that through somebody who is already a SEN participant. And so while we're not facing off directly against the consumers, it's quite often that we are, in fact, in the chain, enabling institutional players to participate in the ecosystem via the SEN. And I'll ask Ben if he wants to comment and give a couple of examples.

是的。我要讓 Ben 在一秒鐘內加入到這裡。但在高層次上，我只想說，首先，我確實看到了 Venmo 的公告。如您所知，這是預期的下一步。但是，所有為客戶提供購買比特幣能力的機構參與者，他們都需要從某個地方獲取比特幣，而且他們可能需要通過已經是 SEN 參與者的人來獲取比特幣。因此，雖然我們沒有直接面對消費者，但事實上，我們經常在鏈條中，使機構參與者能夠通過 SEN 參與生態系統。我會問 Ben 他是否想發表評論並舉幾個例子。

Yes. I think one of the key distinctions is that when you -- I think the majority of people that are buying bitcoin today are looking at it as digital gold or as an asset class as opposed to a payment rail. And some of that has to do with just the intrinsic nature of bitcoin, the bitcoin blockchain, the speed that it takes to update transactions, the cost that -- to use the bitcoin blockchain And also the sort of lack of stability in the value. And so at Silvergate, we're big bitcoin believers and have been for a long time and completely believe in that use case.

是的。我認為關鍵區別之一是，當你 - 我認為今天購買比特幣的大多數人將其視為數字黃金或資產類別而不是支付軌道時。其中一些與比特幣的內在性質、比特幣區塊鏈、更新交易的速度、使用比特幣區塊鏈的成本以及價值缺乏穩定性有關。所以在 Silvergate，我們是比特幣的忠實信徒，並且長期以來一直完全相信這個用例。

Separately, though, from that, you have the emergence of stablecoins or central bank digital currencies, which are really talking about, in most cases, U.S. dollars on a blockchain. And so that's -- and those -- that rail does provide some of the things that bitcoin doesn't in terms of stability, potentially speed to update and then also the cost of -- on chain transactions. And so we think that both use cases will exist and are still early. And we see this massive opportunity of enabling dollars on a blockchain and ultimately doing that through the Silvergate Exchange Network through the 24/7 mint-burn capabilities that are necessary in order to really make that grow.

不過，除此之外，還有穩定幣或中央銀行數字貨幣的出現，在大多數情況下，它們實際上是在談論區塊鏈上的美元。所以這就是——以及那些——這條鐵路確實提供了比特幣在穩定性、潛在的更新速度以及鏈上交易成本方面所沒有的一些東西。因此，我們認為這兩個用例都將存在並且仍處於早期階段。我們看到了在區塊鏈上啟用美元的巨大機會，並最終通過 Silvergate 交易所網絡通過 24/7 的薄荷燃燒功能實現這一目標，這是真正實現增長所必需的。

And so while you look at the growth in stable coins during the quarter, really over the last year, really the stablecoin use case so far is really focused on trading, on DFI and those types of things. And it's really just starting to scratch the surface as it relates to commerce and we think that there's just a massive opportunity broadly as it relates to blockchain-based payments and for Silvergate to play a huge role in that.

因此，當您查看本季度穩定幣的增長時，實際上是去年的增長，到目前為止，穩定幣的用例確實專注於交易、DFI 和這些類型的事情。與商業相關的它實際上才剛剛開始觸及表面，我們認為這與基於區塊鏈的支付有關，而 Silvergate 將在其中發揮巨大作用。

Understood. That's helpful. And I guess my last one and then I'll hop back in the queue is a bit of a follow-up on capital allocation. I mean you've added nearly $1.8 billion quarter-over-quarter in digital currency deposits. But we saw the cash on the balance sheet tick up, I think, about $1.4 billion quarter-over-quarter. What are some of the factors that we should look at or that you're considering as it relates to getting more comfortable putting that into the securities or loan book going forward? I understand you mentioned there was some conservatism this quarter, but this -- is that relationship between deposit growth and cash, you anticipate that holding or any color -- additional color there would be helpful.

明白了。這很有幫助。我想我的最後一個然後我會跳回隊列是對資本分配的後續跟進。我的意思是，您的數字貨幣存款環比增加了近 18 億美元。但我們看到資產負債表上的現金環比增加了約 14 億美元。我們應該考慮哪些因素，或者您正在考慮哪些因素，因為這與將來更容易將其放入證券或貸款賬簿有關？我知道您提到本季度存在一些保守主義，但這是存款增長與現金之間的關係，您預計持有或任何顏色 – 額外的顏色會有幫助。

Yes. I would not expect that the cash balance would stay at the level that you're seeing it. And it's not that we don't have comfort in putting the cash out. It goes back to what I was saying earlier just in terms of trying to be prudent about where we put it. And one of the things that I should also say is that, yes, I mean, we could go out and load up on longer duration security that higher yields and kind of juice the short-term earnings. But we really are and have always been focused on building a sustainable platform focused on the long term. And as we see the demand and our ability to meet the demand for SEN Leverage as we continue to grow the mortgage warehouse pipeline, we will calibrate the excess that we have over and above the loan demand and seek to put it out in higher-yielding securities.

是的。我不希望現金餘額會保持在您看到的水平。並不是說我們不放心把現金拿出來。這可以追溯到我之前所說的，只是試圖謹慎對待我們的放置位置。我還應該說的一件事是，是的，我的意思是，我們可以出去購買更長期限的證券，以提高收益率並增加短期收益。但我們確實並且一直專注於建立一個著眼於長期的可持續平台。隨著我們繼續擴大抵押倉庫管道，我們看到需求和滿足 SEN Leverage 需求的能力，我們將校準超出貸款需求的過剩部分，並尋求將其用於更高收益證券。

Always with the mindset going back to the -- tying this back to the answer to the first question regarding stablecoins and the 24/7 nature of the SEN and just the fact that our customers who're on the SEN are really counting on us to have a very liquid platform and the ability for them to move dollars 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And so part of the reason we see growth in deposits is because as the bitcoin ecosystem expands, more and more customers are wanting to keep dollars in their account at Silvergate so they can take advantage of trading opportunities on nights and weekends. And so all of that gets calibrated in how we manage our liquidity, and I'm very confident over time that we will be generating a nice net interest income in addition to the growing fee income base that we're enjoying.

總是帶著回到的心態——將這與關於穩定幣和 SEN 的 24/7 特性的第一個問題的答案聯繫起來，只是我們的 SEN 上的客戶真的指望我們擁有一個流動性很強的平台，並且能夠讓他們每週 7 天、每天 24 小時移動美元。因此，我們看到存款增長的部分原因是，隨著比特幣生態系統的擴展，越來越多的客戶希望將美元留在 Silvergate 的賬戶中，以便他們可以利用晚上和周末的交易機會。因此，所有這些都在我們如何管理我們的流動性方面得到了校準，隨著時間的推移，我非常有信心，除了我們正在享受的不斷增長的費用收入基礎之外，我們還將產生可觀的淨利息收入。

And our next question will come from Eugene Koysman with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題將來自巴克萊銀行的 Eugene Koysman。

I wanted to take another stab at the liquidity reinvestment in a bit of a different way than was discussed earlier. And namely, how much of the recent digital currency-related deposit inflows you think are sticky enough that you can begin moving them into securities and loans at this point.

我想以與之前討論的方式不同的方式再次嘗試流動性再投資。也就是說，你認為最近有多少與數字貨幣相關的存款流入足夠粘，你可以在此時開始將它們轉移到證券和貸款中。

Yes. Eugene, we really look at it at a slightly different way. The way we look at it is not so much how much of the most recent deposits are sticky enough, but rather how much liquidity do we need to maintain for our growing customer base And therefore, then what is the excess over and above that. So it's just a slightly different way of saying the same thing. But suffice it to say that when we experienced the rapid growth in the fourth quarter, we weren't sure how sticky that was going to be the fact that we've added another 135 customers, and they're all in various stages of joining the SEN, the fact that we've had ongoing deposit growth through the first quarter.

是的。尤金，我們真的以稍微不同的方式看待它。我們看待它的方式不是最近的存款有多少足夠粘，而是我們需要為不斷增長的客戶群維持多少流動性，因此，除此之外還有什麼多餘的。所以這只是說同一件事的方式略有不同。但可以這麼說，當我們在第四季度經歷快速增長時，我們不確定這會帶來多大的粘性，因為我們又增加了 135 個客戶，而且他們都處於不同的加入階段SEN，我們在第一季度的存款持續增長的事實。

And I'm sure it's not lost on you, Eugene. You've probably already done the math. But if our average deposits continued to grow in the first quarter, what does that mean for -- we've mentioned the high and the low, and that's one of the ways that we look to calibrate this is what is the low point, what is the high point and then what is the average? We've started to share that with the broader community so that you can get a little bit better insight into how we're thinking about managing our liquidity going forward.

我相信你不會迷失，尤金。你可能已經完成了數學計算。但是，如果我們的平均存款在第一季度繼續增長，這意味著什麼——我們已經提到了高點和低點，這是我們尋求校準的方法之一，低點是什麼，什麼是是高點，然後是平均值？我們已經開始與更廣泛的社區分享這一點，以便您可以更好地了解我們正在考慮如何管理我們未來的流動性。

Got it. And so you talked about your high watermark of $8 billion through February in your ATM disclosures. Can you share with us your trajectory through March, has that maintained?

知道了。因此，您在 ATM 披露中談到了截至 2 月份 80 億美元的高水位線。您能否與我們分享您在三月份的軌跡，是否保持不變？

Yes. I think I'll ask Tony to comment on the specifics, but I think we actually disclosed in the earnings release that are high for the quarter with $8.4 billion, which would indicate that, that continued to grow. But Tony, do you want to just refresh all of those numbers for Eugene's benefit?

是的。我想我會請託尼對具體細節發表評論，但我認為我們實際上在收益發布中披露了本季度的高額 84 億美元，這表明這一數字還在繼續增長。但是托尼，你想為了尤金的利益而刷新所有這些數字嗎？

Yes. No, that's correct. So the average digital currency deposits were $6.4 billion. the low was $4.6 billion, the high was $8.4 billion, as Alan indicated.

是的。不，這是正確的。因此，平均數字貨幣存款為 64 億美元。正如艾倫所說，最低價為 46 億美元，最高價為 84 億美元。

Got it. And now just more of risk management question. I've gotten a lot of interest from investors on that, given that we saw a bitcoin drop about 15% in the day during the weekend. Can you talk to how -- and if there were any margin calls that resulted in collateral liquidation and how your risk management system was able to handle it. And then also what about your capacity to handle positional liquidations in the market as you grow -- as the portfolio grows larger?

知道了。現在只是更多的風險管理問題。鑑於我們看到比特幣在周末當天下跌了約 15%，因此我已經引起了投資者的極大興趣。您能否談談如何 - 以及是否有任何追加保證金導致抵押品清算，以及您的風險管理系統如何處理它。那麼隨著投資組合的擴大，您在市場上處理頭寸清算的能力又如何呢？

Yes, Eugene, that's a great question. And I'll ask Ben to comment on a little bit more of the specifics. But first, just to frame this for you, I think you may recall that we typically start our LTVs on SEN Leverage in the 75% range. And then we would typically have a collateral coverage or margin call, if you will, in the 75% to 80% range. And so just based on that math alone, a 15% drawdown over the weekend, even if our customers were at the maximum of the LTV would not have initiated a margin call And we still have had no losses in this portfolio. We've not had any significant hiccups. But let me ask Ben if he wants to comment any further.

是的，尤金，這是一個很好的問題。我會請 Ben 就更多細節發表評論。但首先，我想你可能還記得，我們通常在 75% 範圍內的 SEN 槓桿上啟動我們的 LTV。然後，如果您願意，我們通常會在 75% 到 80% 的範圍內進行抵押擔保或追加保證金。因此，僅根據這個數學計算，即使我們的客戶達到 LTV 的最大值，週末 15% 的回撤也不會發起追加保證金通知，而且我們在這個投資組合中仍然沒有虧損。我們沒有遇到任何重大問題。但是，讓我問一下 Ben，他是否想進一步發表評論。

Yes. And one of the considerations from not just a growth perspective but also from a risk management perspective is the use of multiple custodians. And so in addition to Anchorage and Bitstamp, we now have Coinbase and Fidelity. And one of the factors that we look at there is how deep are the order books on the different platforms and what sort of access to market makers that they have. And so -- and another factor there is that we're only making loans on bitcoin because it is the most liquid market. And so we have a number of those different controls in place, and we do a thorough evaluation of each of those partners before we launch these types of programs. But as Alan mentioned, we really -- we haven't had any liquidations to date and feel good about it overall.

是的。不僅從增長的角度，而且從風險管理的角度來看，其中一個考慮因素是使用多個託管人。因此，除了 Anchorage 和 Bitstamp，我們現在還有 Coinbase 和 Fidelity。我們關注的因素之一是不同平台上的訂單簿有多深，以及他們擁有什麼樣的做市商訪問權限。所以 - 另一個因素是我們只在比特幣上提供貸款，因為它是最具流動性的市場。因此，我們制定了許多不同的控制措施，並且在啟動這些類型的計劃之前，我們會對每個合作夥伴進行全面評估。但正如艾倫所說，我們真的 - 迄今為止我們還沒有任何清算，並且總體上感覺很好。

Got it. And do you have a customer-specific level look through in terms of different custodians, let's say, if one customer is using multiple custodians to borrow on margin from you. Do you have the single customer borrowings?

知道了。並且您是否有針對不同託管人的客戶特定級別的查看，例如，如果一個客戶使用多個託管人從您那裡借入保證金。你有單一客戶借款嗎？

Got it. Yes. So we do look at it on a custodian by custodian basis, and we make sure that whatever the loan amount is that we have the appropriate at a particular partner that we have this sufficient collateral at that partner to liquidate it if need be. So we're not really doing any cross-margining across exchanges or different partners. It really is on like on a case-by-case basis where the appropriate amount of collateral is at the appropriate custodian that has the loan that's underwritten.

知道了。是的。因此，我們確實在逐個託管人的基礎上查看它，並且我們確保無論貸款金額是多少，我們在特定合作夥伴處擁有適當的抵押品，我們在該合作夥伴處擁有足夠的抵押品，以便在需要時對其進行清算。因此，我們實際上並沒有在交易所或不同合作夥伴之間進行任何交叉保證金。這實際上是在逐個案例的基礎上，適當數量的抵押品在擁有承銷貸款的適當託管人處。

Understood. And then I have one last one, if I may. On capturing the stablecoin opportunity for minting and burning transactions. What do you view as your ultimate balance sheet size for Silvergate to be able to effectively compete with much larger players that are currently servicing corporate customers through their typical GTS platforms and who will eventually move into stablecoin space to follow these customers for moving money cross-border.

明白了。如果可以的話，我還有最後一個。關於捕捉穩定幣鑄造和銷毀交易的機會。您認為 Silvergate 的最終資產負債表規模是多少，才能有效地與更大的參與者競爭，這些參與者目前通過其典型的 GTS 平台為企業客戶提供服務，並且最終將進入穩定幣領域以跟隨這些客戶進行資金轉移。邊境。

Yes. Not sure that I understand the question. So we talked about the fact that our primary role in the stablecoin ecosystem is in the minting and burning. So I'm not sure I understand the question.

是的。不確定我是否理解這個問題。因此，我們談到了我們在穩定幣生態系統中的主要角色是鑄造和燃燒這一事實。所以我不確定我是否理解這個問題。

So the question, I guess, is, let's say, if there are corporate customers today that are moving to $10 billion, $15 billion in one shot from one country to another, and they're currently using global transaction services, corporate partners. And if they were to move to stablecoin for these kind of transactions, how big of a transaction are you able to support with your balance sheet? And do you need a sizable balance sheet for minting and burning?

所以，我想，問題是，假設今天有企業客戶從一個國家轉移到另一個國家，一次性轉移到 100 億美元，150 億美元，並且他們目前正在使用全球交易服務，企業合作夥伴。如果他們要為這類交易轉向穩定幣，你的資產負債表能支持多大的交易？你需要一個可觀的資產負債表來進行鑄造和燃燒嗎？

No. We do not need a sizable balance sheet because we're not holding those reserves. And let me make sure that -- I think you understand this, Eugene, so forgive me if what I say is obvious. But a large corporate customer doing a transaction like you're describing, that would happen on the blockchain in these open permission less stablecoin protocols, So they would already own the stablecoin. If they wanted to mint it through one of our partners, we would absolutely have the ability to do that. But the moving of the stablecoin from one party to another, is it's not a U.S. fiat leg. Those deposits can be sitting in reserves somewhere and the transaction actually takes place on the blockchain.

不。我們不需要龐大的資產負債表，因為我們沒有持有這些儲備。讓我確定——我想你明白這一點，尤金，如果我說的很明顯，請原諒我。但是，像您所描述的那樣進行交易的大型企業客戶，這將在這些開放許可較少的穩定幣協議中發生在區塊鏈上，因此他們已經擁有穩定幣。如果他們想通過我們的合作夥伴之一鑄造它，我們絕對有能力做到這一點。但是穩定幣從一方轉移到另一方，這不是美國的法定腿。這些存款可以存放在某處的儲備金中，交易實際上發生在區塊鏈上。

And our next question will come from Joseph Vafi with Canaccord.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Canaccord 的 Joseph Vafi。

Sorry about that, guys. Just a quick follow-up, circling back to Coinbase and Fidelity. Can you explain -- I mean, you are one of those companies as a financial slouch by any means. But clearly, they -- and as you are commenting, Alan, it sounds like there may be more partnerships coming down the pipe. Obviously, the SEN and the network effect is a positive driver for distribution of SEN Leverage and the like. But from a financial standpoint, maybe it'd be interesting to go a little bit more on your cost of capital compared to those companies and then not providing that service directly and instead partnering with you?

對不起，伙計們。只是快速跟進，回到 Coinbase 和 Fidelity。你能解釋一下——我的意思是，無論如何，你都是那些財務無精打采的公司之一。但很明顯，他們——正如你所評論的，艾倫，聽起來可能會有更多的合作夥伴關係即將到來。顯然，SEN 和網絡效應是分配 SEN Leverage 等的積極驅動力。但從財務的角度來看，與那些公司相比，在您的資本成本上多花點錢，然後不直接提供該服務，而是與您合作，也許會很有趣？

Yes. So that's a great question. And we probably haven't done a good job of making this point strongly enough. But back to some of the questions earlier about what are we going to do with all these deposits? The fact of the matter is these larger financial players, they aren't banks, right? So they don't have deposits. They have a lot of customers and they have a lot of customers who own bitcoin and other digital assets for whom they are providing custodial services. But if they want to lend U.S. dollars, if their customers want to borrow, they absolutely need a source of dollars.

是的。所以這是一個很好的問題。我們可能還沒有很好地說明這一點。但回到前面的一些問題，我們將如何處理所有這些存款？事實是這些更大的金融參與者，他們不是銀行，對吧？所以他們沒有存款。他們有很多客戶，他們有很多擁有比特幣和其他數字資產的客戶，他們正在為其提供託管服務。但如果他們想藉美元，如果他們的客戶想藉錢，他們絕對需要一個美元來源。

And this is -- Ben has talked about this in terms of the fact that there is this massive demand for U.S. dollar borrowing against digital assets. And that demand is only going to continue to grow as more and more players come into the space. And this is just another reason why we're so bullish on the SEN Leverage opportunity because not only do we have a strong pipeline and are we adding partners. But as more institutional players come into the space, there's a natural need for converting some of those digital assets back into U.S. dollars.

這就是 - Ben 談到了這個事實，即美元對數字資產的借貸需求巨大。隨著越來越多的玩家進入這個領域，這種需求只會繼續增長。這只是我們如此看好 SEN Leverage 機會的另一個原因，因為我們不僅擁有強大的管道，而且還在增加合作夥伴。但隨著越來越多的機構參與者進入該領域，自然需要將其中一些數字資產轉換回美元。

And those players, even the sophisticated financial institutions, as you're pointing out, like Coinbase and Fidelity, they need to partner with a financial institution that has funding, that has deposits. And with our technology positioning in the space and the large deposit network that we have, we just think it's a natural fit and seems to be playing out that way.

正如你所指出的，這些參與者，甚至是複雜的金融機構，比如 Coinbase 和 Fidelity，他們都需要與有資金、有存款的金融機構合作。憑藉我們在該領域的技術定位和我們擁有的大型存款網絡，我們認為這是一種天作之合，並且似乎正在以這種方式發揮作用。

And this will conclude our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Alan Lane for any closing remarks.

這將結束我們的問答環節。我想把會議轉回給 Alan Lane 來做任何閉幕詞。

All right. Thank you, Cole. Before we wrap up, I just want to thank our customers for trusting us with your business. It is truly a pleasure to serve you. I also want to give a shout out to the Silvergate team for a great quarter. And finally, for those still hanging on, thanks to everyone on this call for your continued interest in Silvergate and for your ongoing support. We look forward to speaking with you again soon. Have a great day, everybody.

好的。謝謝你，科爾。在我們結束之前，我只想感謝我們的客戶信任我們與您的業務。很高興為您服務。我還想為 Silvergate 團隊的一個偉大的季度大聲疾呼。最後，對於那些仍在堅持的人，感謝本次電話會議的所有人對 Silvergate 的持續關注和持續的支持。我們期待很快再次與您交談。祝大家有美好的一天。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines at this time.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。你現在可以在這個時候斷開你的線路。