Continuing negotiations with the bankrupt lender's creditors, digital asset conglomerate Digital Currency Group is closing its TradeBlock subsidiary, which provides transaction processing, pricing and main brokerage services to institutional investors.
CoinDesk, the cryptocurrency media and events company run by DCG, acquired TradeBlock in 2020 in a transaction whose financial details were not disclosed.
DCG Spokesperson Cited General Economic Situation and Cryptocurrency Winter
“Due to the state of the overall economy and the protracted crypto winter, as well as the challenging regulatory environment for digital assets in the United States, we have made the decision to shut down the institutional trading platform side of the business,” a DCG spokesperson said in a statement. The shutdown will take effect from May 31.
DCG, led by Barry Silbert, is grappling with the challenges posed by the sudden collapse of one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, FTX, in late 2022. Genesis Global Holdco, which offers returns to lenders of their coins, froze withdrawals in November and filed for bankruptcy in January.
TradeBlock was led by Breanne Madigan, who spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs, including as head of institutional asset services, and is also vice president of global institutional markets at Ripple.
Recently, DCG defaulted on a $630 million Genesis Global debt payment.
*Not investment advice.