What Bitcoin Did
What Bitcoin Did
Danny Knowles
Operation Choke Point 2.0: The Fall of Silvergate | Alan Lane
1 hour 30 minutes Posted Oct 9, 2026 at 6:53 pm.
Early years and professional background
Initial foray into Bitcoin banking
Launching the Silvergate Exchange Network
The post-2017 pivot and institutional growth
Stablecoin initiatives and regulatory scrutiny
The FTX collapse and historical bank run
Wind down and systemic market events
Reflection on banking and Bitcoin
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1:30:07
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Show notes

“We experienced, as a percentage of deposits, the biggest bank run in history.”

Alan Lane joins to discuss the fall of Silvergate, the bank run that followed FTX’s collapse, and how his team kept meeting withdrawals as 70% of deposits left. He explains why he believed the bank could rebuild and what changed between surviving the run and deciding to close.

We also get into Operation Choke Point 2.0, why Alan believes Washington wanted the industry cut off from banking, and the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature just days after Silvergate’s wind-down announcement.

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