Digital Currency Group Raises $700M at $10B Valuation
Digital Currency Group has raised $700 million with the help of SoftBank.
Key Takeaways
- Grayscale parent company Digital Currency Group has raised $700 million.
- The raise was led by SoftBank, with participation from Google, GIC Capital, and Rabbit Capital.
- The funding round values the company at $10 billion and marks the second-largest raise in the cryptocurrency industry to date.
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Digital Currency Group has raised $700 million at a $10 billion valuation in a Series A funding round led by SoftBank.
Digital Currency Group Lands $10 Billion Valuation
Digital Currency Group (DCG), a crypto conglomerate invested in over 200 companies and majority holder of CoinDesk, Grayscale, and Genesis, has closed a $700 million funding round. The raise puts the firm’s valuation at $10 billion.
The Wall Street Journal announced the raise Monday. It’s the crypto industry’s second-largest funding round, following FTX’s $900 million raise from July this year.
The round was led by SoftBank Group Corp, a multinational conglomerate holding company primarily investing in the technology, energy, and financial sectors, and included Alphabet Inc, GIC Capital, and Ribbit Capital.
DCG founder and CEO Barry Silbert announced the raise in a tweet, remarking that the firm was “proud to welcome SoftBank, CapitalG, Ribbit, GIC, Tribe and Emory to an already fantastic list of DCG shareholders.”
Silbert told the Wall Street Journal that the investment round wasn’t about raising capital for the company, but rather an opportunity for early investors to exit and take profits. Accordingly, the funds raised went to shareholders who sold their stakes in the company, while Silbert himself, who owns roughly 40% of DCG, didn’t sell any of his shares.
Founded in 2015, Digital Currency Group is one of the cryptocurrency industry’s largest companies. In addition to overseeing the asset management behemoth Grayscale and other leading firms, its investment portfolio includes companies like FTX, Abra, and eToro.
For SoftBank, which only began investing in the space three months ago, DCG offers an opportunity to diversify and gain broad exposure to the crypto sector. SoftBank Group is one of the world’s largest multinational companies, with a combined net asset value of roughly $29.8 trillion dollars.
According to Silbert, the Digital Currency Group has no plans to going public. “The model I use as an inspiration is Standard Oil,” Silbert told the WSJ, referring to the notorious 19th-century oil firm founded by John D. Rockefeller.
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