Cryptocurrency merchant bank Galaxy Digital Ventures will begin trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) on August 1, founder Michael Novogratz told Bloomberg on Monday.
After an eight-month period under local regulators’ scrutiny, the company will go live through a separate vehicle, Galaxy Digital Holdings, under the GLXY ticker.
The lengthy listing time came from the fact that without the two years’ of audited financials required for a initial public offering (IPO) in the US, Galaxy Digital chose to undergo a reverse takeover by merging with a TSX-listed shell company. Canadian regulators examined the deal closely, pushing back its trading debut from April to August.
Galaxy Digital sold shares at C$5 apiece in a private placement in January, weeks after Bitcoin (BTC) reached record highs of nearly $20,000. With the original cryptocurrency having dropped around 40% since then, the expectation is for the bank to initially trade lower.
“If I knew what I know now, knew the crypto markets were going to swoon as much, and it was going to take so long, I might have stayed private for another year or so and then gone public. But I don’t think it’s a mistake,” Novogratz stated.
The former Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) macro trader further revealed that he intends to seek stock listings in Frankfurt, London, and Hong Kong. “We’re going to be a global company; we want to be globally traded,” he remarked.
The bear crypto market in the first several months of the years has already taken its toll on the Galaxy Digital’s earnings, with the company reporting a $134 million quarterly loss last week. Despite the weak performance, Novogratz voiced confidence in the company’s outlook:
“I have complete confidence in our team’s ability to continue driving growth and believe the company is strategically positioned to help further institutionalize the digital assets and blockchain technology industry.”
In his Monday interview with Bloomberg the billionaire investor further shared his hopes the firm will be cash-flow positive by the end of the year and predicted it will be profitable on a net-income basis by the second quarter of 2019.
Novogratz launched Galaxy Digital in November 2017, pouring $302 million of his own capital into the business — more than the $242 million contributed by all other investors combined.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
