ErisX Taps Silvergate Network for No-Fee USD Transactions

Chicago-based crypto exchange ErisX has joined the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) to give its clients more choice as they manage their assets. By joining SEN, ErisX enables its clients to deposit and withdraw U.S. dollars from Silvergate accounts with no fees.

ErisX, which is backed by US brokerage TD Ameritrade, joins crypto exchanges, miners and custodians who benefit from the service that also offers leveraged trading options. The crypto-friendly lender already counts major crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken as clients.

The product, which was first launched in 2017, allows the bank’s customers to obtain US dollar loans collateralized by their bitcoin holdings at some crypto exchanges that Silvergate is currently serving.

While its contracts vie with the Bakkt’s futures in trading physically delivered Bitcoin, ErisX was the first digital asset exchange to offer both spot and futures markets on the same platform.

Silvergate has recently expanded access to SEN Leverage by partnering with the digital asset custodian Anchorage, which raised $40 million in a Visa co-led series B fundraising.

SEN Network handled transfers worth $17.4 billion in Q1

SEN Leverage uses Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) to fund loans and process repayments in real-time 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

Silvergate, which is trading under the ticker (NYSE: $SI), registered a first quarter increase in number of transactions handled by its SEN Network, which rose to 31,405 compared to 14,400 transactions in the previous quarter. This figure is also four times higher than the 7,097 transactions set back in the first quarter of 2019.

In terms of value, the global payments platform, which now supports cash purchases of cryptocurrencies through wire transfers, experienced growth in excess of 90 percent thanks to higher volumes of bitcoin trades. Specifically, the SEN handled $17.4 billion of U.S. dollar transfers in the first quarter, compared to $9.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019, and $4.1 billion in the first quarter of 2019.

In the absence of major institutional attention, Silvergate Bank provided tailored financial services to businesses that are directly or indirectly dealing with cryptocurrency and blockchain-related services.