Our calling David Benoit covers banks.

And lately he's been writing about one bank in particular called Silvergate.

Silvergate is not a household name, but in the world of crypto, it's huge.

Over the past few years, it's become the go-to banker for crypto companies.

Silvergate's the one bank that touched crypto. They brought crypto into the mainstream banking system.

Most of the banks have won stay far away from crypto.

Silvergate said, we're going to plunge in there and try to take some business.

And business has been good.

They were banking all the big customers, all the big players in crypto.

They're deposits or their profits or their stock went from $12 to over $200 at one point in 2021.

It looked like they were kind of headed to the moon.

And then it's the oldest saying in the book, what goes up must come down.

Bitcoin getting hammered today, hitting its lowest level since last July.

Bitcoin and Ether, both down. We're looking at double digit losses in the last seven days.

FTX founded by 30-year-old Sam Bankman-Freed has filed for bankruptcy.

It's all a far cry from the gold rush like atmosphere from not that long ago.

Last year, the crypto world entered a crypto winter.

And it's raised questions about the future of the crypto industry's top bank, Silvergate.

Right now, Silvergate has fallen dramatically.

Its stock is down some 90 percent and we are now wondering what sort of the future holds for a bank

that is focused on an industry that's somewhat inflamed.

Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business, and power.

...