Galaxy Digital Receives $71 Million from Selling Shares in EOS Creator Block.one


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Galaxy Digital Receives $71 Million from Selling Shares in EOS Creator Block.one

Galaxy Digital, Michael Novogratz’ diversified merchant bank, has sold its shares in Block.one, the creator of the EOS blockchain, and received $71.2 million and a 123% return on the realized investment.

According to the press release, on April 18, Galaxy Digital accepted a tender offer in the ordinary shares of Block.one. The transaction closed on May 20, and the bank received $71.2 million for the tendered shares that represent a majority of its position and a 123% return on the realized investment. After the transaction is closed, the remaining ordinary shares in Block.one ‘will no longer represent a material investment position’.

Michael Novogratz, founder, CEO, and chairman of Galaxy Digital, commented:

“The acceptance of Block.one’s tender offer reflected a decision to rebalance the portfolio to maintain an appropriate level of diversification after the position increased due to its substantial outperformance relative to the remainder of the portfolio. We continue to work closely with Block.one as a key partner across a number of our business lines, including the Galaxy EOS VC Fund, which invests in companies building on the EOS.IO protocol, and remain excited about the EOS.IO protocol.”

The outcome is a result of Block.one’s buyback program of 10 percent of its company shares. Due to the buyback, the company is valued at about $2.3 billion, which is up from about a $40 million valuation in the 2017 seed round. The repurchase price of about $1,500 per share, compared to the $22.50 investors paid in that fundraising.

The buyback offer came less than a year after a first stock repurchase offer in which Block.one sought to acquire 15% of its outstanding shares at $1,200 each. A total of 13.8% was tendered, which makes up approximately $300 million.

Galaxy Digital pointed out that collaboration with Block.one will continue. Since January 2018, the companies have been working on the EOSIO Ecosystem. EOSIO is software architecture of EOS blockchain. It is a free, open-source protocol that provides developers and entrepreneurs with a platform on which to build, deploy and run high-performing blockchain applications. Developed by Block.one, EOSIO allows developers to write business logic that is compatible with consensus algorithms that demand deterministic execution.

EOSIO Explorer to Improve Experience of Developers

Recently, Block.one announced the release of the EOSIO Explorer, a new web-based graphical user interface aimed at improving the developer experience of interacting and monitoring EOSIO-based applications and networks in development.

According to the company’s blog post, the EOSIO Explorer is based on previous releases from Block.one and takes into consideration the interests of both smart contract developers and front-end EOSIO app developers.

The EOSIO Explorer has so-called inspecting features that allow developers to check the data transmitted between an application and the blockchain and verify the functionality of a smart contract. Moreover, it is equipped with interacting features that are most useful for user testing and verifying accounts interacting with users’ application.

With the EOSIO Explorer, it will be much easier for developers to create and manage their development accounts and make this process more interesting and less time-consuming.

Galaxy Digital Receives $71 Million from Selling Shares in EOS Creator Block.one