Barry Silbert spent nearly a decade building Digital Currency Group, a cryptocurrency giant with subsidiaries spanning trading, media, mining, venture investing and more. After a turbulent few months, that empire is set to shrink dramatically.
The big question now is what the remaining pieces of the DCG, which landed a $10 billion valuation in a secondary share sale in 2021, will ultimately be worth. The conglomerate generated around $800 million in revenue last year, a DCG spokesperson told The Information. While lower than its $1 billion a year earlier, 2022 still saw the company’s second-highest revenue ever, the spokesperson said. But that was before Genesis’ lending business tumbled into bankruptcy last month.
Now, Genesis is looking to sell off its crypto lending and trading operations, and DCG has also been weighing a sale of its CoinDesk media arm. DCG could be left with two main money makers: Its Grayscale arm, which manages crypto investment trusts, and its Foundry crypto mining business. While DCG shuttered its HQ wealth management business last month, it hadn’t gained much traction yet. And its Luno exchange is tiny compared to rivals.
