Despite the long bear market, Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital continues to look around for reinforcements. The next party using the crypto platform as part of that quest buys up is GK8a self custody platform. Galaxy Digital is acquiring the company from the now-bankrupt crypto lending platform Celsius.
Today, @GalaxyHQ, a financial services and investment management innovator in the digital asset, cryptocurrency, and blockchain technology sectors, announced it intends to acquire GK8. Read more: https://t.co/eRVaB8pJHg
— GK8 (@GK8_Security) December 2, 2022
Cheap acquisition
Galaxy Digital does not want to share anything about the purchase price, except that it is a lot lower than the $ 115 million Celsius paid for this platform in November 2021. The purpose of purchasing Galaxy Digital is to provide its so-called prime brokerage expand.
The acquisition of GK8 brings a total of 40 people to the Galaxy Digital team, including several blockchain engineers and cryptography experts. The acquisition still needs to be approved by the regulator.
The acquisition would expand Galaxy Digital’s presence on the global stage with an office in Israel’s Tel Aviv. CEO and Founder Novogratz says:
“Adding GK8 to our arsenal is an important moment for our industry and our commitment to take advantage of strategic opportunities to grow Galaxy Digital in a sustainable manner.”
The fall of Celsius
The problems with the crypto-lending platform Celsius arose after the collapse of Terra (LUNA) in May of this year. In the end, it took until July 2022 for Celsius to file for bankruptcy and put some of its assets, including GK8, up for auction.
Galaxy Digital had previously planned to acquire BitGo for $1.2 billion, but backed out after the company was unable to provide sufficient clarity on its financial health. BitGo responded to canceling that deal by filing a lawsuit against Galaxy Digital.
Now Novogratz’s company seems to have opted for a different solution with GK8 and the BitGo acquisition is definitely off the table. Unless BitGo succeeds in enforcing the deal through the courtroom, but the chance of that seems small.
Novogratz is convinced that bitcoin (BTC) can still rise by more than 2,800% to $ 500,000.