Who acquired CoinDesk?
Original author: Protos
Original compilation: Wu Shuo Blockchain
CoinDesk, currently the most influential blockchain media in the English-speaking world, was acquired by DCG for US$500,000 in 2016. In 2022, its business revenue exceeded US$50 million. As Genesis went bankrupt in February this year, DCG sought to sell it for $200 million. On July 21, WSJ reported that a consortium of investors reached the final stage of a deal with cryptocurrency media company CoinDesk. The shares sold by CoinDesk were sold for approximately US$125 million, with a total value of more than US$200 million.
The following is a Chinese compilation of the Protos article
The Wall Street Journal reports that an investment consortium is close to completing a deal to acquire CoinDesk. The deal will value the most prolific cryptocurrency news company at $125 million (Wu said note: CoinDesk sold shares for about $125 million, not a valuation of $125 million). Tally Capitals Matthew Roszak and Capital 6s Peter Vessenes are leading the investment syndicate, with the identities of the other members remaining unknown.
Roszak and Vessenes have a long and complicated history in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, dating back to Mt. Gox.
First there are Vessenes. He served as CEO of Coinlab; in fact, he was a broker and partner for Mt. Gox, serving as a gateway to North American investment from the likes of Roger Ver, Barry Silbert, and Tim Draper.
A series of lawsuits ensued between Mt. Gox and CoinLab over who violated which terms of their agreement — until Gox went bankrupt. Coinlab made a series of escalating claims during the bankruptcy proceedings, ultimately claiming that Gox assets owed it $16 billion.
Vessenes and Roszak went head-to-head during Goxs bankruptcy. Roszak has teamed up with Brock Pierce, William Quigley, Jonathan Yantis, Louis Freeh and John Betts in a venture called Sunlot Holdings, which hopes to purchase and revive Mt. Gox.
Pierce later even described Vessenes lawsuit as nonsense.
He claimed that if the cooperation with Mt. Gox had not been cancelled, CoinLab would have become Coinbase, and he filed a lawsuit because of this, Pierce said. He thinks Coinbase is worth $16 billion, so he should get $16 billion.
He misappropriated funds from Mt. Gox, committed crimes, and he tried to extort creditors. He dragged out the entire process in the hope that he would get a huge reward.
Its worth noting that Pierce still hopes to revive Gox, and the lawsuit is delaying bankruptcy proceedings.
Brock Pierce, William Quigley, and Jonathan Yantis later created a well-known stablecoin called RealCoin, more commonly known as Tether. Tether then opened a bank account at Noble Bank, founded by Pierce and John Betts. They also received a memorandum from Louis Freeh at Freeh, Sporkin, Sullivan attesting to the quality of their reserves.
Peter and Brock also worked together at the Bitcoin Foundation for a time, when Pierce was chairman. But he was eventually forced to leave.
Roszak and Pierce continued to collaborate elsewhere, including at the short-lived Toronto incubator Bitcoin Decentral, which was advised by Stuart Hoegner. Hoegner is also the general counsel of Tether and Bitfinex.
More importantly, Matthew Roszak and Andrew Flip Filipowski jointly run Tally Capital and Silk Road Equity. Flip also ran Blue Rhino, and ultimately, Roszak had to settle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) because of insider trading in the Blue Rhino merger.
All of this is to lead me to say the following: they are not the right stewards of CoinDesk.
CoinDesks award-winning journalism has often pitted its team against its parent company, DCG, whose leader, Barry Silbert, appears to have been making ongoing moves at DCG, Grayscale and Genesis.
CoinDesk is also willing to engage in a multi-year legal effort to increase Tether’s transparency.
Im not sure the new owners will support news that challenges the industry. One is trying to sue a bankrupt cryptocurrency trading platform for $15 billion; the other is a man accused of insider trading who cant stop working with Brock Pierce.
In response to this reaction, DCG seems to be increasingly less optimistic about the development of CoinDesk. Of course, some people say that perhaps these investors want to support it out of their love for news.
Maybe the alternative is even worse. Frankly, I just hope CoinDesks managers dont go from bad to worse; I hope its many talented reporters and researchers continue to be free to strengthen the industry.
