The Pomp Podcast
Alan Lane, CEO of Silvergate: Why Bitcoiners Shouldn’t Hate Banks
- Silvergate's founding in 2008 and Alan Lane's path into banking Bitcoin services starting in 2013 after reading about the industry and recognizing regulatory compliance gaps other banks were leaving unfilled.
- The Silvergate Exchange Network (SEND), launched in 2017, which enables 24/7 fiat currency transfers between institutional clients—a major competitive moat built on customer feedback and API infrastructure.
- Silvergate's customer base of nearly 800 institutions including exchanges, OTC desks, and institutional investors; the bank's focus on staying in its regulated lane rather than chasing speculative crypto opportunities.
- Upcoming product launches: foreign currency exchange desk, collateralized lending on Bitcoin (pilot this quarter), and digital asset settlement services planned for next year.
- The regulatory environment: Lane's view that existing U.S. laws already apply to crypto companies and that compliance, not innovation, should drive the strategy; no single federal money transmitter license needed.
- Jack Dorsey's potential underestimation in the industry and the theory that developing nations may leapfrog Western infrastructure via Bitcoin and crypto-based income generation (mining, staking).