The one who bought the Meta stablecoin Diem back in the day is a good friend of SBF.

When rumors of Meta's plan to re-enter the stablecoin market in 2026 began to circulate on social media, market attention inevitably turned back to that afternoon in June 2018 when Facebook announced the birth of Libra. The subsequent events are basically well known to everyone: Libra made continuous compromises for regulation, even rebranded as Diem, and ultimately had to sell off completely, cutting ties with Meta.

The bank that bought Libra, now Diem, from Meta was Silvergate, a bank that many may not remember, but Silvergate did have a prestigious status as a deeply integrated partner of FTX.

Looking back from the hindsight of 2026, SBF, who has already been defined as the ceiling of cryptocurrency investments, must have provided a lot of good ideas to his good friend Silvergate, including the acquisition of Diem. If it weren't for the 2022 debacle, this would likely have been another top-notch investment: a compliant entity holding a banking license, paired with a foundational settlement network built over three years by a Silicon Valley giant, connecting all imaginable payment rails.

In the sell-off at the beginning of 2022 with drastically reduced valuations, Silvergate spared no effort in issuing $132 million worth of new shares to Meta and paying an additional $50 million in cash. Stablecoins in 2022 were far from reaching today's universal level of acceptance, but Silvergate's CEO Alan Lane is indeed a talent. The whole world knows that Diem was sold because regulations didn't allow it, but Alan's obsession with the narrative of "bank-issued stablecoins" led him to agree to a $200 million deal.

Of course, SBF must have been advising him on the side.

Although it's unclear how SBF helped, many details indicate that their relationship was unbelievably strong. In previous interviews, SBF has praised Silvergate more than once, saying that this bank is a cornerstone of industry development, and without Silvergate, FTX would not be able to handle USD settlements. Even after the debacle, in the collective lawsuit against Silvergate, it was alleged that the relationship between Silvergate and FTX was "more intimate than ordinary business."

It is well known that converting USD in FTX is incredibly user-friendly, and from this perspective, Silvergate indeed has its remarkable strengths.

By acquiring Diem, the cryptocurrency industry in the eyes of SBF has undergone earth-shaking changes: an individual can now trade all top-tier assets worldwide using only one currency in one account, encompassing a trading system, asset tokenization, and stablecoins, all within his business scope.

If Anthropic, backed by SBF, can grow from 500 million to 70 billion, and the investment in SOL can grow from 60 million to 21 billion, then there is also reason to believe that Silvergate's acquisition of Facebook for 200 million, which crystallized over three years, could also have top-tier performance today.

Unfortunately, with FTX's collapse, Silvergate did not fare well either. As FTX's primary banking partner, Silvergate faced an unprecedented run on the bank. To maintain liquidity, it had to sell off assets at a loss, and the Diem assets acquired for 182 million dollars were ultimately written off to zero on the balance sheet. With the announcement of an orderly wind-down in March 2023, this foundational bank of the crypto industry collapsed entirely.

It wasn't until 2024 that the liquidation process was completed, and Silvergate's name was removed from the regulators' enforcement list. This bank with over 30 years of history made last-minute payments of tens of millions of dollars in fines to the Federal Reserve and SEC, surrendered all its banking licenses, and the Diem code remained untouched in the liquidation pool.