MicroStrategy, the US-based enterprise software firm led by Bitcoin (BTC) bull Michael Saylor, has taken a bitcoin-secured loan of USD 250m from Silvergate Bank, with the company planning to use the money to buy even more BTC.
The loan, issued as an interest-only term loan by Silvergate Bank is “secured by certain bitcoin held in MacroStrategy’s collateral account,” an announcement from the firm said.
MacroStrategy is a subsidiary of MicroStrategy.
The announcement added that the company will use the loan “(i) to purchase bitcoins, (ii) to pay fees, interest, and expenses related to the loan transaction, or (iii) for MacroStrategy’s or MicroStrategy’s general corporate purposes.”
MicroStrategy’s new loan falls under Silvergate’s SEN Leverage scheme, which is a way for institutions to get access to US dollar loans using bitcoin as collateral. Since launching the new type of loan in 2020, Silvergate has lent out approximately USD 570m under the scheme, the announcement said.
“The SEN Leverage loan gives us an opportunity to further our position as the leading public company investor in bitcoin,” Michael Saylor said in a comment. He added that with capital from the loan, the company has “effectively turned our bitcoin into productive collateral, which allows us to further execute against our business strategy.”
California-based Silvergate Bank is known as a crypto-friendly bank that already works with several stablecoin issuers. The bank’s partnerships have included Meta’s Diem stablecoin, which Silvergate purchased after Meta abandoned the project.
Source: Cryptonews
