Crypto Merchant Bank Galaxy Digital Sells Shares in EOS Creator Block.One for $71 Mln

Crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital has sold its shares in EOS developer Block.one for $71.2 million. The news was announced in a press release on May 21.

According to the release, the bank reportedly accepted EOS’ tender offer back in April, closing the transaction on May 20 to realize a 123% return on its initial investment. Following the deal, Galaxy Digital’s investment in Block.One no longer represents a material investment position, the press release notes.  

In a statement, Galaxy Digital CEO and founder Michael Novogratz outlined that:

“The acceptance of Block.one’s tender offer reflected a decision to rebalance the portfolio to maintain an appropriate level of diversification after the position increased due to its substantial outperformance relative to the remainder of the portfolio.”  

Novogratz underscored that the deal does not indicate an end to the bank’s close relationship with Block.One, stating that:

“We continue to work closely with Block.one as a key partner across a number of our business lines, including the Galaxy EOS VC Fund, which invests in companies building on the EOS.IO protocol, and remain excited about the EOS.IO protocol."

As Cointelegraph has previously reported last December, Galaxy Digital and Block.One’s joint Galaxy EOS VC fund led a $30 million Series A investment round in United States neo-banking platform Good Money.

Their cooperation to date also includes the formation and capitalization of $325 million EOSIO Ecosystem Fund back in January 2018.

This January, Novogratz — a former Goldman Sachs partner — increased his shares of Galaxy Digital to 79.3%.

And in April, Galaxy Digital revealed it had posted a net loss of $272.7 million in 2018, ostensibly as the slump in cryptocurrency prices took its toll. As of November, the company had reported a loss of $136 million in the first three quarters of that year, pointing to an effectively doubling of its losses in the space of the last three months of 2018.

Last year, Block.One had notably secured investments from billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and crypto mining hardware billionaire Jihan Wu of Bitmain.

To press time, EOS is ranked the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market cap globally, and has seen virtually no price change over the past 24 hours, trading at $6.25.