Digital Currency Group Completes $600M Debt Capital Raise

This new debt capital raise comes shortly after DCG raised $700 million in the beginning of November, at a $10 billion valuation.

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Digital Currency Group founder and CEO Barry Silbert; Blockworks exclusive art by axel Rangel

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key takeaways

  • DCG is a parent company of six cryptocurrency-based companies: Genesis, Grayscale, CoinDesk, Foundry, Luno and most recently TradeBlock
  • “This financing strengthens our ability to respond dynamically to opportunities in the market,” DCG Founder and CEO Barry Silbert said in a statement

Digital Currency Group (DCG) has completed a debt capital raise up to $600 million to provide a credit facility, the company reported on Thursday. This is the company’s first move in debt capital markets and the debt financing is intended to serve the group’s strategic, operational and financial capabilities by reducing its cost of capital.

The raise was led by Eldridge, which also served as an administrative agent for the credit facility alongside other institutional lenders and funds managed by Capital Group, Davidson Kempner Capital Management, and Francisco Partners, among others, it said. 

DCG is a parent company of six cryptocurrency-based companies: Genesis, Grayscale, CoinDesk, Foundry, Luno and most recently TradeBlock. Digital asset manager Grayscale is the largest in the group, which oversees $60.8 billion in assets under management, Blockworks recently reported

The conglomerate was founded in 2015 as a global investment company that has invested in more than 200 blockchain-based businesses across 35 countries, it said. 

“This financing strengthens our ability to respond dynamically to opportunities in the market,” DCG Founder and CEO Barry Silbert said in a statement. 

This debt capital raise comes shortly after DCG raised $700 million in the beginning of November, bringing its valuation to $10 billion at the time. The investment round was led by SoftBank Group, Alphabet Inc.’s growth fund CapitalG and Ribbit Capital. 

The $700 million investment also wasn’t about raising funding for the company, Silbert told the Wall Street Journal at the time, but was rather an opportunity for early investors to take profits. While some DCG investors took profits, Silbert was not among them and continues to own almost 40% of the company.
To date, DCG’s portfolio has raised $1.1 billion, according to the company’s website.


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