Silvergate Capital, Which Bought Zuckerberg’s Crypto Project, Plans To Launch Stabelcoin

Silvergate Capital, the bank holding company that has bought assets from Mark Zuckerberg's cryptocurrency project, is planning to launch a stablecoin by the end of the year.

The California-based financial firm, through its unit Silvergate Exchange Network, confirmed it was buying assets from the Diem Group on Monday. Silvergate had previously also been a partner on the Facebook-backed project.

Diem Association, Facebook's ambitious crypto project, also confirmed the sale of its assets to the Silvergate group for about $200 million, The Wall Street Journal said in a report.

“We were working last year with Diem and we got to know the team very well, and we couldn’t be more excited to, essentially, be taking the reigns (sic) and bringing a stablecoin to market hopefully later this year," Silvergate Capital CEO Alan Lane told CNBC.

Silvergate Bank is one of the first traditional banks to embrace digital currencies.

Lane further revealed plans of expanding the everyday usefulness of stablecoins, which are a type of digital asset that has its value pegged to traditional currencies. As of now, Lane noted they’re mostly used in crypto trading.

“We think the potential worth is off the charts when we think about using the blockchain technology for payments and remittance,” Lane said when asked upon how much Silvergate thinks Diem’s assets are worth.