Billionaire Mike Novogratz unfazed by Galaxy Digital’s $175.8M loss in Q2

Published at: Aug. 18, 2021

Mike Novogratz’s crypto investment firm, Galaxy Digital Holdings, has posted a second-quarter loss of $175.8 million.

The figure provides a stark contrast to the firm’s first-quarter report, which booked $860 million in comprehensive net profit earlier this year.

Galaxy Digital posted its financial results as of June 30 on Monday, with the firm attributing the $175.8-million Q2 loss to asset price declines after FUD-inducing narratives fueled the crypto downturn in May.

“During the quarter, our results were impacted by a 34% decline in overall digital asset prices and a 41% decline in the price of Bitcoin, relative to the end of the first quarter,” the report read.

In a conference call regarding the Q2 results, CEO and founder Novogratz was unfazed by the loss as he cited several key metrics that he’s enthusiastic about, such as counterparty trading volume, blue-chip partnerships in Goldman Sachs, strategic investments and employee acquisitions.

The CEO highlighted that the firm remains “significantly profitable” in the first half of 2021 as net comprehensive income totaled $684 million.

Novogratz noted that market volatility and asset price declines have been “offset by strong tailwinds of adoption across the whole ecosystem” as he pointed to Galaxy’s counterparty trading volumes gaining 90% in Q2 and 560% year-over-year. Galaxy Digital’s assets under management gained 12% from Q1 to surpass $1.42 billion as of June 30:

“It’s important to remember that when we look at the business, the long-term arc of adoption of digital assets in crypto matters far more than the businesses we are building.”

“We view the adoption battle as a hard one, stickier, and more financially impactful over time than short-term price moves,” he added.

The Q2 report also highlighted that gross counterparty loan originations grew more than 130% since Q1 to reach approximately $1.56 billion.

Galaxy’s headcount saw a significant gain of 45% in Q2 to reach around 220 employees globally. The firm also noted the “key leadership hires” of Tim Grant, former CEO of Swiss Exchange SIX Group, who will serve as head of Europe; as well as former BlackRock chief operating officer Jennifer Lee who will become the chief people officer.

The company also reported an outlay of $52 million of strategic capital into 14 different nonfungible token (NFT)-related companies with direct investments and through Galaxy Interactive Fund strategies. Novogratz stated he was “most excited” about the investments in Major League Baseball collectible platform Candy Digital, NFT game developer Mythical Games and NFT platform Art Blocks.