Digital Currency Group (DCG), CoinDesk’s parent company, is terminating its TradeBlock trading broker and trading execution services unit due to the crypto winter and regulatory uncertainty.
The closing of the unit, which provides trading services to institutional investors, will be effective May 31, a DCG spokesperson said in an email to CoinDesk. “Due to the state of the broader economy and the prolonged crypto winter, along with the challenging regulatory environment of digital assets in the United States, we have decided to terminate the trading platform of the institution part of the company, which is known as TradeBlock, effective May 31, 2023,” the spokesperson said.
TradeBlock was acquired by CoinDesk in 2020 and later launched as its own standalone business. CoinDesk retained the index data, which took the name CoinDesk Indexes and was “a successful acquisition,” a spokesman said.
The decision comes at a time when the cryptocurrency conglomerate giant finds itself in a difficult market environment after its subsidiary Genesis Global Holdco filed for bankruptcy last year. Earlier this month, DCG defaulted on $630 million in debt owed to Genesis, and its CFO resigned in April.
DCG reported a loss of $1.1bn in 2022 due to the effects of the cryptocurrency bear market and ended the year with only $262m in cash. However, the company posted a better quarter for the first time this year when its revenue increased 63% from the previous quarter thanks to rising cryptocurrency prices. As of first quarter performance, DCG estimated 2023 revenue and Ebitda to be around $620 million and $140 million, respectively, excluding Genesis which is still under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
This article was translated by Natalia Paulovsky.
