Who is taking over CoinDesk?

Who Will Be the New Owner of CoinDesk?

Original author: Protos

Translation: Wu Blockchain

CoinDesk, the most influential blockchain media in the English-speaking world, was acquired by DCG in 2016 for $500,000. In 2022, its revenue surpassed $50 million. In February of this year, due to Genesis’ bankruptcy, DCG sought to sell it for $200 million. On July 21, WSJ reported that an investor consortium reached the final stage of the transaction with cryptocurrency media company CoinDesk, with the share price of CoinDesk being sold for about $125 million, totaling over $200 million.

Below is the Chinese translation of the Protos article:

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“The Wall Street Journal” reported that an investment consortium is about to acquire CoinDesk. This transaction will value the most productive cryptocurrency news company at $125 million (Note from Wu: The share price of CoinDesk being sold is about $125 million, not a valuation of $125 million). Matthew Roszak from Tally Capital and Peter Vessenes from Capital6 are the leaders of this investment consortium, and the identities of other members are still unknown.

Roszak and Vessenes have a long and complicated history in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, dating back to Mt. Gox.

First, Vessenes. He was the CEO of Coinlab and, in fact, the broker and partner of Mt. Gox, serving as a means to obtain investments from North America through people like Roger Ver, Barry Silbert, and Tim Draper.

A series of lawsuits and disputes occurred between Mt. Gox and CoinLab, arguing over which terms of their agreement were violated—until Gox went bankrupt. Coinlab filed a series of escalating claims in the bankruptcy proceedings, eventually claiming $16 billion in assets owed by Gox.

Vessenes and Roszak clashed during Gox’s bankruptcy. Roszak worked with Brock Pierce, William Quigley, Jonathan Yantis, Louis Freeh, and John Betts to buy and revive Mt. Gox in a company called Sunlot Holdings.

Pierce later even described Vessenes’ lawsuits as “baseless.”

“He claimed that if the cooperation with Mt. Gox had not been canceled, CoinLab would have become Coinbase and therefore filed a lawsuit,” Pierce said. “He believed that Coinbase was worth $16 billion, so he should get $16 billion.”

“He embezzled funds from Mt. Gox, committed crimes, and tried to extort creditors. He delayed the whole process, hoping for a huge return.”

It is worth noting that Pierce still hopes to revive Gox and this lawsuit is delaying the bankruptcy proceedings.

Brock Pierce, William Quigley, and Jonathan Yantis later created a well-known stablecoin called RealCoin, more commonly known as Tether. Tether then opened a bank account in the Noble Bank, created by Pierce and John Betts. They also received a memorandum from Louis Freeh at Freeh, Sporkin, & Sullivan, proving the quality of their reserves.

Peter and Brock once collaborated in the Bitcoin Foundation, with Pierce as the chairman. However, he was eventually forced to resign.

Roszak and Pierce continued to collaborate elsewhere, including the short-lived Toronto incubator Bitcoin Decentral, which was advised by Stuart Hoegner. Hoegner also serves as the general legal counsel for Tether and Bitfinex.

More importantly, Matthew Roszak and Andrew “Flip” Filipowski co-manage Tally Capital and Silk Road Equity. Flip has previously operated Blue Rhino, and ultimately, due to insider trading during the merger of Blue Rhino, Roszak had to reach a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

All of this leads me to say the following: they are not the suitable managers for CoinDesk.

CoinDesk’s excellent news coverage has received numerous awards, which often led to conflicts with its parent company, DCG. DCG’s leader, Barry Silbert, seems to be constantly involved in…certain actions within DCG, Grayscale, and Genesis.

CoinDesk is also willing to make years of legal efforts to enhance the transparency of Tether.

I’m not sure if the new owners will support challenging the industry news. One of them attempted to sue a bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange for $15 billion, while the other is accused of insider trading and can’t seem to stop working with Brock Pierce.

In response, DCG seems to be increasingly pessimistic about the development of CoinDesk. Of course, some people say that perhaps these investors are motivated by their love for news and want to support it.

Perhaps another choice could be even worse. Honestly, I just hope that the managers of CoinDesk don’t go from bad to worse; I hope that its talented journalists and researchers can continue to strengthen this industry freely.

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