The Bitcoin boom is giving a big gift to Silvergate Capital, a bank in California that accepts cryptocurrency deposits and Bitcoin loans.

According to CNN, the bank’s shares have risen 120% this year. Since the IPO in November 2019, Silvergate Capital shares have increased by 1,300%.

More and more financial firms such as Bank of New York Mellon, Visa, MasterCard, BlackRock are starting to pay attention to Bitcoin. However, no other unit is considered as comprehensive as Silvergate.

Silvergate decided to invest in cryptocurrency after CEO Alan Lane first personally bought Bitcoin in 2013. According to Lane, he realized there was a need for a financial institution that could focus exclusively on transactions. electronic money, allowing deposit and lending.

He argued that such a bank would be able to serve customers at any time because Bitcoin never stops trading like currencies, stocks, bonds and other assets.

“We started with cryptocurrency deposits from customers and quickly realized that it takes 40 hours more per week than traditional banking hours. We need to build a 24/7 global digital bank, ”said Lane.

Silvergate Bank currently has about $ 5 billion in cryptocurrency deposits. However, the bank’s most attractive point to its customers is the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) – which allows users to convert dollars into cryptocurrencies at any time.

Silvergate’s prominent clients include Coinbase, a Bitcoin exchange scheduled to go public later this year, and Square, the payments giant Jack Dorsey, allowing customers to buy and sell Bitcoin.

Silvergate has also expanded its business as more and more financial firms are looking for investment opportunities in Bitcoin. The bank launched its SEN Leverage product last year, which aims to offer financial firms a mortgage in Bitcoin.

However, the bank’s share price is also currently proportional to Bitcoin’s price. On February 22, Silvergate shares lost 4% when the price of Bitcoin at one point fell below the $ 50,000 mark.