Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital Turns Profitable on Crypto Markets Rebound

Yueqi Yang, Bloomberg News

Michael Novogratz, founder and chief executive officer of Galaxy Digital LP, during the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute Priority Summit in Miami, Florida, US, on Thursday, March 30, 2023. The summit offers an opportunity for expert leaders in topics like climate change, poverty and immigration to meet with potential partners and catalyze projects to move from the research stage to full-developed real-world solutions. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Michael Novogratz, the founder of crypto financial services firm Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd., said his company is moving more operations offshore in part due to the regulatory environment in the US.

“This is a global business and our intention is to continue to grow outside of the US, at a much quicker pace than we were growing in the United States,” Novogratz said Tuesday on a first-quarter earnings conference call for New York-based Galaxy.

Novogratz said he doesn’t expect any major crypto legislation to pass in the US soon, and regulators including the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will continue to “regulate with lawsuits,” leading to long process in the courts.

“So it’s a little bit of a stasis. It’s one reason, quite frankly, that we are moving more of our operations offshore and certainly looking at the opportunity set,” he said. Galaxy recently added a group of traders in Hong Kong.

A spate of crypto probes in the US has prompted companies to look toward financial hubs overseas, such as Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. Coinbase Global Inc. Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong said Monday that his company is considering the United Arab Emirates to be an international hub.

Galaxy swung to a first-quarter profit from a loss amid a rebound in token prices and unrealized gains on investments.

Net income was $134 million, or 41 cents a share, compared to a net loss of $111.2 million, 34 cents, a year-earlier. Galaxy’s loss was $288 million in the fourth quarter, when token prices collapsed amid a series of industry scandals and bankruptcies.

“We enter the second quarter of 2023 extremely well positioned to grow our market share and build deeper relationships with our clients and partners,” Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy, said in a statement. The company ended the first quarter with a liquidity position of $814 million.

Galaxy, which offers businesses ranging from crypto trading and asset management to mining, reported trading income of $129.9 million in the first quarter, a 257% increase quarter-over-quarter, driven primarily by net gains on digital assets and derivatives. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, surged 72% in the first quarter, after tumbling 64% in 2022.

The company said it continues to work on its plan to become a Delaware-incorporated company and subsequently list on the Nasdaq, subject to an ongoing SEC review.

(Adds comment from Novogratz, beginning in the first paragraph.)