Galaxy Digital Buyout of GK8 from “Bank Run” Celsius

Mike Novogratz’s firm Galaxy bought GK8 from Celsius.
Back story of Celsius and the recent deal.
Improvements at the GK8 after the Auction deal.

Mike Played It Right

Mike Novogratz founded crypto-centered financial services platform Galaxy Digitals has closed the bid of self-custody firm GK8 from the bankrupt crypto firm Celsius Network.

As per the announcement- “Galaxy has been selected as the winning bidder for the GK8 platform in a sale process executed in connection with divestment of Celsius Network assets. Galaxy will provide continued support for GK8’s current suite of innovative self-custody security solutions. GK8 infrastructure will underpin Galaxy’s new prime offering for institutions.”

Terms and conditions laid down in the deal are not publicly revealed, however Galaxy spokesman Michael Wursthorn informed that they won the auction at a price lower when compared to the closure of GK8 deal by Celsius a year ago. Celsius brought GK8 in $115 million in the last year.

According to a press release, Mike said, “The acquisition of GK8 is a crucial cornerstone in our effort to create a truly full-service financial platform for digital assets, ensuring our clients will have the option to store their digital assets at or separate from Galaxy without compromising versatility and functionality.”

As reported by the Bloomberg, on this occasion, Galaxy’s Co-President Chris Ferraro remarked, “This is a point of time in the market where trust is at its lowest, and we think that going forward now, there’s going to be a much higher bar, much higher scrutiny on all the players market participants depend on,” continuing his statements at the interview. “It puts Galaxy in a very sticky way into the infrastructure of digital assets.”

“The idea of having self-custody as an option is very top of mind,” he further added. “We’ve had our sights on bringing forward the tech side of Galaxy for a long time now.”

Celsius & More…..

In July this year, the troubled crypto lending company Celsius filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11, with a last amount of $167 million in cash. It proceeded after weeks of rumors and regulatory investigations. CEO Alex Mashinky also resigned from his respective position. The market turmoil caused by the Luna Terra crash, led to the huge hole of $1.19 billion in their balance sheet.

The difficulties at Celsius recurred after the crypto firm halted customers withdrawals and swap before a month of going “bank run”. Depicting serious liquidity issues, calling for urgent speculations by the regulators of Washington, Texas, Alabama, New Jersey, etc.

As per the media reports, Galaxy will be increasing the team of approx. 40 people consisting of blockchain techies and cryptographers, that will eventually develop the prime brokerage at GK8.