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Who acquired CoinDesk?

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Hope its many talented journalists and researchers can continue to freely strengthen this industry.

Original author: Protos

Translated by: Wu Blockchain

Currently, CoinDesk, the most influential blockchain media in the English-speaking world, was acquired by DCG for $500,000 in 2016. Its business revenue exceeded $50 million in 2022. In February of this year, DCG sought to sell it for $200 million due to Genesis' bankruptcy. On July 21, WSJ reported that an investor consortium had reached the final stage of a deal with cryptocurrency media company CoinDesk, with the shares sold by CoinDesk priced at approximately $125 million, with a total value of over $200 million.

Following is the Chinese translation of Protos article:

The Wall Street Journal reported that an investment consortium is about to reach a deal to acquire CoinDesk. This transaction will value the most productive cryptocurrency news company at $125 million (Note by Wu: the shares sold by CoinDesk are priced at about $125 million, not valued at $125 million). Matthew Roszak of Tally Capital and Peter Vessenes of Capital6 are the leaders of the investment consortium, and the identities of other members are still unknown.

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

First up is Vessenes. He was the CEO of Coinlab and actually acted as a broker and partner for Mt. Gox, serving as a way to obtain North American investments from people like Roger Ver, Barry Silbert, and Tim Draper.

There have been a series of lawsuits between Mt. Gox and CoinLab, disputing which terms of their agreement were violated - until Gox went bankrupt. CoinLab filed a series of escalating claims in the bankruptcy proceedings, ultimately claiming that Gox owed it $1.6 billion in assets.

Vessenes and Roszak had a direct confrontation during the bankruptcy of Gox. Roszak collaborated with Brock Pierce, William Quigley, Jonathan Yantis, Louis Freeh, and John Betts in a company called Sunlot Holdings, with the hope of purchasing and reviving Mt. Gox.

Pierce later even described Vessenes' lawsuit as "baseless".

"He claimed that if the partnership with Mt. Gox had not been cancelled, CoinLab would have become Coinbase and therefore filed a lawsuit," said Pierce. "He believes Coinbase is worth $16 billion, so he should receive $16 billion."

"He embezzled funds from Mt. Gox, committed a crime, and attempted to extort creditors. He delayed the entire process, hoping for a huge payoff."

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 subsequently opened a bank account at 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, where Pierce was the chairman. However, he was eventually forced to resign.

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

More importantly, Matthew Roszak and Andrew "Flip" Filipowski jointly operate Tally Capital and Silk Road Equity. Flip also previously operated Blue Rhino, and ultimately, due to insider trading in the merger of Blue Rhino, Roszak had to reach a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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

The excellent news coverage of CoinDesk has won numerous awards, which often leads to conflicts between its team and its parent company DCG. DCG's leader Barry Silbert seems to be continuously taking action within DCG, Grayscale, and Genesis.

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

I am not sure if the new owner will support the news of challenging the industry. One of them is trying to sue a bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange for $15 billion; the other is a person accused of insider trading who cannot stop working with Brock Pierce.

Regarding this reaction, DCG seems to be increasingly pessimistic about the development of CoinDesk. Of course, some people say that perhaps these investors are supporting it out of their love for news.

Perhaps another choice could be even worse. To be frank, I just hope that the managers of CoinDesk won't go from bad to worse; I hope that their numerous talented journalists and researchers can continue to strengthen this industry freely.