Asset Purchase Brings GK8's Team and
Operations Under Galaxy's Ownership
Acquisition Bolsters Galaxy's Commitment to
Providing Leading Infrastructure and
Prime Services to
Institutions
GK8 will Continue to Provide Innovative,
Client-Driven Custody Solutions
NEW
YORK, Feb. 23, 2023 /CNW/ - Galaxy Digital
Holdings Ltd. (TSX: GLXY) ("Galaxy" or "the Company"), a
financial services and investment management innovator in the
digital asset, cryptocurrency, and blockchain
technology sectors, has completed its previously announced
acquisition of substantially all of the assets of GK8, a secure
institutional digital asset custody platform, for approximately
$44 million.
By acquiring GK8's suite of innovative custody technology and
services, Galaxy aims to enhance how clients interact with and
store digital assets. GK8's patented technology puts custody of
digital assets into the hands of the institutions that manage them.
GK8's technology also broadens ecosystem access by enabling
staking, decentralized finance networks (DeFi), tokenization, NFT
support, and trading services. GK8 provides these services through
its patented Cold and MPC vaults allowing institutions to
securely manage their digital assets. The Cold vault enables the
execution of blockchain transactions without connecting to the
internet, while the proprietary multi-party computation (MPC) vault
enables automated transactions.
"Investor demand for innovative and secure custody services
continues to grow, and the acquisition of GK8 enhances our efforts
to offer clients best-in-class cold storage solutions along with
cutting-edge wallet technology," said Mike
Novogratz, Founder and CEO of Galaxy. "In addition to
continuing to offer highly valuable custody technology to clients,
the GK8 team will play a pivotal role in our evolution to offer a
full-service financial platform for digital assets."
With the backing of Galaxy, GK8 will continue to develop and
offer its digital asset custody solutions for institutions,
including banks, trust companies, broker-dealers, and trading
platforms. Galaxy also plans to incorporate GK8's custodial
technology into GalaxyOne, the Company's previously announced prime
brokerage platform. Once launched, GalaxyOne will provide the full
suite of digital asset financial services to institutions,
including trading, lending, derivatives, cross-portfolio margining,
and several custodial options, including GK8's custody
solutions.
Additional benefits of the transaction for Galaxy include adding
an office in Tel Aviv, expanding
the company's geographic reach, and bringing on a team of nearly 40
people, including cryptographers and blockchain engineers. The
founders of GK8, CEO Lior Lamesh and CTO Shahar Shamai, have also joined to lead Galaxy's
custodial technologies offering.
"The closing of this transaction represents an exciting new
chapter for GK8, our employees, and the institutions that rely on
our best-in-class custody infrastructure and services," said
Lamesh. "Galaxy has built an impressive reputation as one of the
most trusted and client-focused companies across the digital asset
space, and we are thrilled to join the Galaxy team to help them
deliver an unparalleled suite of offerings to institutional
clients."
About Galaxy Digital
Galaxy (TSX: GLXY) is a digital
asset and blockchain leader providing institutions, startups, and
qualified individuals access to the crypto economy.
Our full suite of financial services is custom-made for a digitally
native ecosystem, spanning multiple synergistic business lines:
Trading, Asset Management, Investment Banking, Mining, and
Ventures.
Galaxy's CEO and Founder Michael
Novogratz leads a team of crypto enthusiasts
and institutional veterans working together on a mission to
engineer a new economic paradigm. The Company is headquartered in
New York City, with global offices
across North America, Europe, and Asia.
Additional information about Galaxy's businesses and products is
available on www.galaxy.com.
For more information on GK8, visit www.gk8.io.
Disclaimers
The TSX has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of
this press release.
CAUTION ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING
STATEMENTS
The information in this communication may contain
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of
the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the
"Exchange Act") and "forward-looking information" under Canadian
securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Our
forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to,
statements regarding our or our management team's expectations,
hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future,
including some statements about GK8 and GalaxyOne. In addition, any
statements that refer to estimates, projections, forecasts or other
characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any
underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The
words "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could,"
"estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "might," "plan,"
"possible," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "would"
and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements,
but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is
not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this press
release may include, for example, statements about our expectations
around the performance of the Company, GalaxyOne and GK8's
business. The forward-looking statements contained in this release
are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future
developments and their potential effects on us taking into account
information currently available to us. There can be no assurance
that future developments affecting us will be those that we have
anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of
risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or
other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to
be materially different from those expressed or implied by these
forward-looking statements. These risks include, but are not
limited to (1) changes in applicable laws or regulations; (2) the
possibility that the combined company may be adversely affected by
other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; (3) changes
or events that impact the cryptocurrency industry,
including potential regulation, that are out of our control; (4)
the risk that our business will not grow in line with our
expectations or continue on its current trajectory; (5) the
possibility that our addressable market is smaller than we have
anticipated and/or that we may not gain share of it; (6) those
other risks contained in the Annual Information Form for the year
ended December 31, 2021 available on
the Company's profile at www.sedar.com and (7) other risks and
uncertainties to be indicated from time to time in filings made on
SEDAR. Factors that could cause actual results of the Company to
differ materially from those described in such forward-looking
statements include, but are not limited to, a decline in the
digital asset market or general economic conditions; the
possibility that our addressable market is smaller than we have
anticipated and/or that we may not gain share of the stated
addressable market; the failure or delay in the adoption of digital
assets and the blockchain ecosystem and corresponding impacts to
our business, including the rollout of GalaxyOne and integration of
GK8. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties
materialize, they could cause our actual results to differ
materially from the forward-looking statements. We are not
undertaking any obligation to update or revise any forward looking
statements whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise. You should not take any statement regarding past trends
or activities as a representation that the trends or activities
will continue in the future. Accordingly, you should not put undue
reliance on these statements.
SOURCE Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd.