digital asset management
Celsius’ co-founder Daniel Leon follows Mashinsky out as crypto exec flight continues
S. Daniel Leon, who cofounded Celsius with Alex Mashinsky in 2017, has quit his job as the bankrupt crypto lender’s chief strategy officer, CNBC reported Oct. 4, citing unnamed sources and an internal memo seen by the outlet. Bloomberg later reported receiving confirmation of Leon’s resignation from the company. Leon’s resignation comes one week after Mashinsky’s and is part of an apparently growing trend. Celsius filed for bankruptcy July 13, while it was under investigation by six American states and a month after freezing withdrawals. The company was reportedly $1.9 billion in debt at the time of its bankruptcy declaration. Mashinsky resigned Sept. 27, saying in a statement, “I regret that my continued role as CEO has become an increasing distraction, and I am very sorry about the diffi...
SBF and the Mooch tie the knot as FTX Ventures takes 30% stake of SkyBridge Capital
FTX Ventures, an arm of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange, will acquire a 30% stake in alternative asset manager SkyBridge Capital, the firms announced Sept. 9. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but SkyBridge will use $40 million of the proceeds to purchase cryptocurrencies to hold as a long-term investment, according to a statement. SkyBridge founder and managing partner Anthony Scaramucci said about the deal on Twitter, “There’s a small universe of outside investors SkyBridge would ever consider partnering with, and @SBF_FTX is one of them.” He added separately, “This won’t significantly impact our day-to-day business and doesn’t change our strategy. […] We will remain a diversified asset firm, while investing heavily in blockchain.” SkyBridge managed about $2.5...
Sushi and Synthetix get the boot in Grayscale DeFi fund rebalancing
Digital asset management firm Grayscale, has added three new cryptocurrency assets across three main investment funds, while removing two other assets from its Decentralized Finance Fund as part of this year’s first quarterly rebalance. Grayscale removed tokens from crypto-derivatives decentralized exchange Synthetix (SNX), and decentralized exchange SushiSwap (SUSHI), from its DeFi fund after the two crypto assets failed to meet the required minimum market capitalization. No other cryptocurrencies were removed during the rebalancing. Grayscale’s DeFi fund, which was launched in July last year, currently holds approximately $8 million in assets. The digital assets remaining in the DeFi fund after the quarterly rebalance include Uniswap (UNI), Aave (AAVE), Curve (CRV), MakerDAO (MKR),...
Valkyrie’s latest ETF offering has exposure to Bitcoin
Crypto asset manager Valkyrie has launched an exchange-traded fund with exposure to Bitcoin on the Nasdaq Stock Market. In a Wednesday SEC filing, Valkyrie said its Balance Sheet Opportunities ETF will not invest directly in Bitcoin (BTC) but 80% of its net assets would offer exposure to the crypto asset through securities of U.S. companies with BTC on their balance sheets. These companies may include custodians, crypto exchanges, and traders. The filing specifies that Valkyrie’s ETF may invest up to 10% of its net assets in securities of Bitcoin mining firms, as well as up to 5% in the securities of pooled investment vehicles in the U.S. that hold BTC. At the time of publication, shares of the fund under the ticker VBB are trading for $24.48, having fallen more than 1.5% since launch...
