BitGo raises $100M after losing lawsuit against Galaxy

Cryptocurrency custody platform BitGo has raised fresh capital after facing a series of terminated deals involving firms like Michael Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital.

BitGo has raised $100 million in a Series C financing round bringing the company’s valuation to $1.75 billion, the firm announced to Cointelegraph on Aug. 16.

The newly raised funds will be deployed to make strategic acquisitions and expand BitGo’s secure and regulated custody, wallet and infrastructure solutions globally.

BitGo CEO Mike Belshe noted that the new funds will help the firm to meet the growing demand for custody and provide institutions and companies with tools to participate in the crypto industry. So far in 2023, BitGo has seen a 60% increase of new clients as well as 40x growth in staked assets, the firm said. Belshe added:

“Not only are we seeing growing demand for regulated custody solutions in the United States, but we're also seeing the demand on a global scale.”

According to a report by Bloomberg, BitGo’s Series C funding featured entirely new investors based in the United States and Asia. Some of the backers came from outside the cryptocurrency industry, Belshe reportedly said.

BitGo’s previous investors include the American investment bank Goldman Sachs, the diversified trading firm DRW Holdings and Galaxy’s venture capital arm, Galaxy Digital Ventures. In 2021, Galaxy even planned to acquire BitGo for $1.2 billion, but eventually terminated the deal a year later. The firm cited a breach of contract related to BitGo’s failure to provide certain financial statements.

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Following the termination of the acquisition, BitGo sued Galaxy over improper repudiation and intentional breach of the acquisition agreement. The firm was seeking $100 million in damages from Galaxy for the breach of acquisition. In June 2023, BitGo’s claims were dismissed by a court in the United States.

Subsequently, BitGo also canceled its acquisition of the fintech infrastructure provider Prime Trust on June 22. The deal cancellation came just about two weeks after BitGo shared its non-binding letter of intent to acquire Prime Trust.

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