A group of investors is in the final stages of negotiations to buy the crypto-focused publication CoinDesk, valued at $125 million. The Wall Street Journal, citing informed sources, reports this.
The amount of the investment is not disclosed.
The syndicate is led by Matthew Rozak of Tally Capital and Peter Vessenes of Capital 6.
In January, WSJ reported that the parent Digital Currency Group (DCG) is considering the possibility of selling part or 100% of CoinDesk, which joined the group in 2016 after a purchase for $500,000–$600,000.
It was reported that the upper bound of bids stood at $200 million. In 2022, the outlet reportedly generated revenue of $50 million.
The potential deal could ease DCG’s difficult position. On May 22, the holding missed a $630 million payment to compensate Gemini Earn users.
Earlier, Digital Currency Group, its subsidiary Genesis, the creditors committee of the crypto-lending platform, and Gemini agreed to launch a 30-day pre-litigation settlement process.
The parties are seeking an acceptable resolution to the February 2023 Genesis’ agreement with creditors, under which creditors would recover 80% of the lost funds. The arrangements envisaged a gradual write-down of Genesis’s loan portfolio and the sale of insolvent entities.
Financial support for the group’s lending business was needed after the June 2022 bankruptcy of the cryptocurrency Three Arrows Capital hedge fund.
On November 6, 2022, Genesis Global Capital froze withdrawals and the issuance of new loans. The firm cited heightened client withdrawals following the FTX collapse.
In January 2023, Genesis Global Holdco and its subsidiaries Genesis Asia Pacific and Genesis Global Capital filed for bankruptcy. According to the press, their liabilities exceed $3 billion.
Earlier, on May 31, it was reported that DCG’s institutional-investor-focused trading platform TradeBlock was winding down operations.
The decision comes four months after the closure of HQ Digital, the group’s asset-management subsidiary.