CoinDesk Inc., a crypto-focused media company, has engaged investment bankers at Lazard Ltd. (NYSE:LAZ) to evaluate options, including a partial or full sale, the Wall Street Journal reported. CoinDesk is exploring a potential sale due to the worsening crisis at its parent company – Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group (DCG).
“Over the last few months, we have received numerous inbound indications of interest in CoinDesk,” said CoinDesk’s CEO Kevin Worth. Meanwhile, CoinDesk’s sister company Genesis Global Capital might file for bankruptcy as early as this week, Bloomberg reported. DCG’s other entities, including crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments and Bitcoin (BTC-USD) miner Foundry, are also under financial pressure.
DCG acquired CoinDesk in 2016 for $500,000. The news outlet grew rapidly due to the growing interest in crypto and reportedly generated revenue of $50 million in 2022. Sources told WSJ that DCG has received several unsolicited offers of more than $200 million in the past few months for CoinDesk.
It is interesting to note that CoinDesk was the first to report the irregularities in the financials of both crypto exchange FTX and its sister trading firm Alameda Research. The report triggered the eventual collapse of FTX and caused panic in the crypto market at a time when sentiment was already weak due to rising interest rates and macro pressures. Amid all this turmoil, several cryptocurrencies and crypto-based stocks fell significantly. Bitcoin (BTC-USD) shed over 50% of its value over the past year.
Join our Webinar to learn how TipRanks promotes Wall Street transparency
