After launching a cryptocurrency lending platform in 2021, Amesbury-based BankProv saw its digital asset lending portfolio grow to $120 million and earnings increase 34 percent.

The bank’s parent company, Provident Bancorp Inc., had full-year 2021 net income of $16.1 million, or $0.93 per diluted share, compared to $12 million, or $0.66 per diluted share, in 2020.

The bank did see earnings drop in the fourth quarter, driven by $984,000 in expenses related to the Nov. 1 resignation of BankProv’s president and chief lending officer, Charles Withee, the bank said in its fourth quarter earnings statement. Withee had joined the bank in 2004 and became president in 2013.

The bank had fourth quarter net income of $3.6 million, or $0.21 per diluted share, compared to $4.3 million, or $0.24 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2020.

“The execution of our strategic initiatives culminated in a successful year for BankProv and I am proud to report the 2021 year-end results,” BankProv’s CEO Dave Mansfield said in the statement. “Our specialty lending, particularly enterprise value and digital assets, drove our loan growth in the fourth quarter after experiencing loan decline in the third quarter from prepayments.”

BankProv, legally known as The Provident Bank, saw total assets increase by 14.8 percent year-over-year to $1.73 billion.

Net loans increased 9.1 percent in 2021 to $1.43 billion at the end of December compared to $1.31 billion in 2020. The bank said the increase in net loans was due to growth in commercial loans of $160.3 million, up 28.3 percent, and construction and land development loan growth of $13.9 million, up 48 percent.

Loans to digital asset companies grew 703.1 percent in 2021 to $120.4 million, up from $15 million at the end of 2020. The bank also saw its enterprise value loans grow by $54.2 million, or 18.9 percent, to $340.3 million, while renewable energy loans increased by 67.7 percent to $62.3 million. The bank saw some declines in its loan portfolio, including commercial real estate loans, which declined by $6.7 million, or 1.5 percent, and mortgage warehouse loans, which declined $11.6 million, or 4.4 percent.

Some of the bank’s 2021 deposit growth was also tied to the bank’s specialty products. BankProv had $1.46 billion in deposits at the end 2021, up $222.5 million compared to 2020.

The bank said deposit relationships with digital asset customers increased $68.7 million, or 222.3 percent, to $99.7 million compared to $30.9 million at the end of 2020.

The bank last year also began accepting deposits from banking-as-a-service (BaaS) customers. The service lets financial technology and other companies use application programming interfaces (APIs) to build banking offerings. BankProv’s BaaS customers had $59.9 million in deposits at the end of 2021.

“We were able to align all the components needed to service our digital asset and banking as a service customers, placing BankProv in an optimal position heading into 2022,” Mansfield said in the statement. “Our diverse earning streams, strategic partnerships along with strong loan and deposit growth, credit quality and capital demonstrate a unique and attractive growth profile.”