Grayscale’s Parent Company DCG Raises $700M in Secondary Share Sale

Digital Currency Group (DCG), Grayscale’s parent company has successfully raised the sum of $700 million in a secondary share sale. According to the Wall Street Journal, the funding round attracted top investors including Softbank Group Corp’s Vision 2 Fund, Latin American Fund, GIC Capital, Ribbit Capital, and Alphabet Inc’s CapitalG.

The share sale, in which old shareholders put up their holdings for sale to the new investors in a way to cart away some profit, has resulted in the market valuation of the company soaring to $10 billion. This valuation effectively positions Grayscale’s parent company as one of the most valuable private companies in the digital currency world.

DCG group is a regulated entity and has many companies it manages, chief of which is Grayscale Investments, a crypto index funds provider with over $50 billion assets under management (AUM). The firm currently has plans to convert its Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a full-fledged ETF. DCG is also the parent company of crypto media site Coindesk as well as Genesis, an institutional lending firm.

“We’re the best proxy for investing in this industry,” Barry Silbert, founder, and CEO of Digital Currency Group told CNBC in an interview. “We were looking for the type of backers that could be, and hopefully will be with, with us on this journey for the next couple of decades.”  

Grayscale’s Parent Company is Bankrolling the Innovations of the Future

With a growing list of avenues by which mainstream investors can gain access to the digital currency ecosystem, the latest backing of Grayscale’s parent company is a testament to the positive disposition of investors to the firm. 

CapitalG founder and general partner David Lawee has highlighted the capabilities of DCG to identify and invest in new crypto ventures, in an industry he says is growing faster than the dot com era.

“When I think back to the nineties, very few companies I met still exist — it’s very hard to evolve as quickly as technology evolves — you need to be a pretty nimble company to take advantage of it,” Lawee said. “DCG has a lot of flexibility to make investments and to get into new businesses.”

Despite the accolades it received from investors, Barry Silbert re-affirmed the company’s position to bankroll projects with great innovations for the future. 

“Ninety nine percent of the digital assets that exist today are overvalued, and most don’t really have a reason to exist,” Silbert said. “But I’m also a believer in creative destruction and that’s okay that they aren’t going to be valuable —  what’s going to come out of it is some incredibly valuable, impactful protocols.” 

Silbert confirmed that he did not sell any shares in the latest round and that he is keen on running the firm as a privately held company as there is no working capital pressure on the outfit. This position draws on the company’s stellar business performance.