California-based crypto bank Silvergate has actually suspended dividend payments to maintain its “highly liquid balance sheet.”

In a Jan. 27 announcement, the company mentioned that it is stopping “the payment of dividends on its 5.375% Fixed Rate Non-Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series A, in order to protect capital.”

The business outlined that it made the decision to weather the storm of crypto winter seasonbut stressed that it still preserves a “cash position in excess of its digital possession customer-related deposits.”

“This choice reflects the Company’s concentrate on preserving a highly liquid balance sheet with a strong capital position as it navigates current volatility in the digital possession industry.”

“The Company’s Board of Directors will re-evaluate the payment of quarterly dividends as market conditions progress,” the firm added.

The statement comes just 11 days after the business published a large $1 billion net loss in its Q4 2022 report on Jan. 17. Silvergate associated its bad efficiency to the overall sour market belief, which has seen financiers opt for a “risk-off” method over the previous year.

In the Q4 report, Silvegate CEO Alan Lane also utilized comparable language to the latest statement, keeping in mind that the company is still bullish on the crypto sector but is working to keep “an extremely liquid balance sheet with a strong capital position.”

The news of suspended dividends on Friday was met with significant losses in both its preferred (SI-PA) and common (SI) stock rates.

According to information from Yahoo Finance, the price of SI-PA dropped by 22.71% to $8.85, while SI decreased by 3.76% to sit at $13.58 by market close.

Zooming out also paints a grim picture for SI-PA and SI, with the share rates decreasing by 60% and 87.46% over the previous 12 months.Related: U.S. home-loanbanks provided billions of dollars to crypto banks: Report This is not the only action the company has actually required to fortify its

coffers this month, after it revealed on Jan. 5 that it had laid off 200 staff members– representing 40%of its headcount– in a quote to survive.