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Digital Currency Group

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Digital Currency Group Inc.
Company typePrivately held company
IndustryAsset management
Founded2015; 9 years ago (2015)
FounderBarry Silbert
HeadquartersStamford, Connecticut
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Barry Silbert (CEO)
ProductsInvestment funds
AUM$50 billion (Sept. 2021)[1]
Subsidiaries
  • CoinDesk
  • Foundry
  • Genesis
  • Grayscale Investments
  • Luno
Websitedcg.co

Digital Currency Group (DCG) is a venture capital company focusing on the digital currency market. It is located in Stamford, Connecticut.[2] The company has five subsidiaries which are CoinDesk, Foundry, Genesis, Grayscale Investments, and Luno.

History

Digital Currency Group was launched in 2015 by Barry Silbert, a graduate of Emory University[3] who previously was CEO of SecondMarket, Inc. He began investing in blockchain technology companies in 2013.[4] Shortly after SecondMarket’s sale, Silbert formed Digital Currency Group, with Genesis and Grayscale becoming the first of the company’s subsidiaries.[5]

In November 2021, the firm announced it would relocate its Manhattan headquarters to Stamford, Connecticut.[6] The governor of Connecticut at the time, Ned Lamont, provided financial incentives for the company to relocate to Stamford, including a $5 million grant from the state government if Digital Currency Group created at least 300 full-time jobs in the state.[7]

As of November 2021, Digital Currency Group had made over 200 investments in other cryptocurrency companies.[8]

Subsidiaries

Genesis Global Trading

Genesis is a crypto trading, lending, and asset custody platform, targeting institutional clients and high net worth individuals. They claim to have been the first OTC Bitcoin crypto desk, launched in 2013.[9]

Genesis acquired the London-based crypto asset custodian company Volt in early 2020. Genesis' sister company Grayscale Investments had been custodying its crypto assets with the company Xapo, which had been acquired by Genesis' rival Bitcoin trading company Coinbase in 2019. News media speculated that Genesis' crypto custody would be transferred away from Coinbase and made internal to Greyscale after completion of the Volt acquisition.[10]

In late June and early July of 2022, Genesis publicly revealed that it had been left exposed to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses from loans to both the Hong Kong based crypto lender Babel Finance[citation needed] as well as the bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), and that its parent company DCG had taken on some of Genesis' debts in order to keep the company afloat.[11] On August 17, 2022, CEO Michael Moro resigned from his position. Genesis Trading announced that he would be serving in an advisory position to help with the transition while COO Derar Islim took over his duties as interim CEO.[citation needed]

Grayscale Investments

[12]Established in 2013, Grayscale Investments is a digital currency asset manager. It offers funds privately for institutional and accredited investors[13] and publicly-traded products.[14] They were the world’s largest asset manager for digital currency, as of December 2021, with more than $50 billion in assets under management at the time.[7] Grayscale also manages the Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust (OTCQX: GBTC), which was the first publicly quoted securities solely invested in the price of bitcoin upon its launch in 2013.[4]

As of April 2021, six of Grayscale’s funds were traded publicly on the OTCQX market: the Bitcoin Cash, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, the Grayscale Ethereum Trust, the Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust, the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund, and the Grayscale Litecoin Trust.[15]

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust was approved for public trading by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in 2015.[16][17] On January 21, 2020, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust became the first digital currency financial product to become a Securities and Exchange Commission reporting company.[18]

In 2018, Grayscale launched the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund which allows a customer to invest in a group of prominent digital currencies.[19] The fund was approved to trade on public markets by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in October 2019.[20] In May 2022, it was reported that Grayscale will list an exchange-traded fund (ETF) for the first time in Europe. The ETF is said to be made up of companies representing the "Future of Finance", and will begin trading on May 17.[21]

CoinDesk

Main article: CoinDesk

CoinDesk is a global media, research, and events platform that was acquired by Digital Currency Group in 2016.[22] It reports on blockchain’s daily news, provides a Bitcoin Price Index and publishes a quarterly State of Bitcoin report. CoinDesk also hosts a conference on digital currencies and blockchain technologies titled Consensus.[23]

Foundry

Foundry, established in 2019, sets up and manages bitcoin mining operations in the United States and Canada.[24] In addition to setting up and operating its own cryptocurrency mining equipment, Foundry also provides financing, specialized digital mining equipment, and expertise to other digital currency startups.[25]

In the summer of 2021, Foundry helped to relocate over $300 million worth of equipment from China to North America following the Chinese government shutting down many cryptocurrency mining operations.[26]

Luno

In September 2020 Digital Currency Group acquired Luno, a cryptocurrency exchange based in London, with other operations in Cape Town and Singapore.[27][28] At the time of the acquisition, Luno had more than 5 million customers.[27]

References

  1. ^ Ehrlich, Steven. "Grayscale Paves The Way For Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin Cash And Litecoin ETFs While The Fate Of Bitcoin's First Lies In The Balance". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  2. ^ Vigna, Paul (2016-04-28). "Bitcoin-Focused Investment Firm Brings On Western Union, Lawrence Summers". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 2016-05-05. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  3. ^ "Barry Silbert".
  4. ^ a b Primack, Dan (23 September 2013). "First Bitcoin Investment Fund Launches". Fortune Ledger. Archived from the original on 30 April 2019. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  5. ^ Tepper, Fitz (27 October 2015). "Barry Silbert Launches Digital Currency Group With Funding From MasterCard, Others". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 30 April 2019. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  6. ^ Hall, Phil. "Blockchain behemoth DCG relocating to Stamford from NYC". Westfair Online. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  7. ^ a b "With a cryptocurrency company's move to Stamford, Gov. Lamont and business leaders say it's a sign of change for Connecticut". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  8. ^ Vigna, Paul (2021-11-01). "WSJ News Exclusive | Digital Currency Group Wants to Be Crypto's Standard Oil". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  9. ^ ""About Our Company - Genesis Global Trading, Inc"". genesistrading.com. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  10. ^ Roberts, Jeff John. "Genesis expands crypto footprint with custody acquisition". Fortune.com. Fortune.com. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  11. ^ Yang, Yueqi. "Crypto Lender Genesis Confirms Exposure to Bankrupt Three Arrows Capital". Bloomberg. Bloomberg. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  12. ^ Howcroft, Elizabeth (2022-05-16). "Grayscale to launch digital assets ETF in UK, Italy, Germany". Reuters. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  13. ^ Rooney, Kate (1 November 2018). "Crypto investment firm Grayscale rakes in $330 million this year despite bitcoin bear market". CNBC. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  14. ^ Salzman, Avi (15 October 2019). "New Cryptocurrency Fund Finds a Side Door Into Your Brokerage Account". Barron's. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  15. ^ Paz, Javier. "Will Grayscale Plan To Convert GBTC To A Bitcoin ETF Work?". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  16. ^ Casey, Michael J. (1 March 2015). "BIT Poised to Become Publicly Traded Bitcoin Fund". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  17. ^ Salzman, Avi (3 July 2017). "Bitcoin and Beyond". Barron's. 97 (27): 17–20.
  18. ^ Castillo, Michael del. "20 Institutional Bitcoin Investors Revealed, But Soon The List May Vanish". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  19. ^ Roberts, Daniel (7 February 2018). "Exclusive: Grayscale launches new 'Digital Large Cap Fund' tied to 5 top cryptocurrencies". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  20. ^ Keeley, Aislinn (14 October 2019). "Grayscale gets FINRA approval for Digital Large Cap Fund". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  21. ^ Howcroft, Elizabeth (2022-05-16). "Grayscale to launch digital assets ETF in UK, Italy, Germany". Reuters. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  22. ^ Matney, Lucas (13 January 2016). "CoinDesk Gets Acquired By Digital Currency Group". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 18 May 2016. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  23. ^ Roberts, Daniel (4 May 2016). "The 5 biggest bitcoin and blockchain announcements at Consensus". Yahoo Finance. Archived from the original on 9 May 2016. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  24. ^ "Crypto giant DCG bets $100M to mine Bitcoin in North America". Fortune. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  25. ^ Robertson, Harry. "Bitcoin mining can be a 'bridge' to a renewable energy future by supporting green projects, a leading North American miner says". Markets Insider. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  26. ^ Sigalos, MacKenzie. "It just got harder and less profitable to mine for bitcoin as algorithm adjusts". CNBC. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  27. ^ a b "Naspers-Backed Crypto Luno Acquired by Digital Currency Group". Bloomberg.com. 2020-09-09. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  28. ^ "Bitcoin Price Pump Movement Grows Ahead of El Salvador's Adoption". Bloomberg.com. 2021-09-06. Retrieved 2022-08-23.

See also

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