While Bitcoin continues its gyrations, New York-based Galaxy—which hopes to list on a U.S. exchange in the second half of the year—reported strong first-quarter results Monday. Even after the recent volatility, Bitcoin is up around 45% for the year.
Net comprehensive income, excluding non-controlling interests, increased to $860.2 million, from a net comprehensive loss of $26.9 million in the prior-year period. Counterparty trading volumes grew more than 290% year over year. Its preliminary assets under management rose to $1.27 billion as of March 31, a 58% jump from the prior quarter.
Galaxy is involved in a slew of businesses, ranging from mining to helping companies with acquisitions to investing in startups. In May, Galaxy acquired crypto custodian BitGo for $1.2 billion. Erin Brown, who was previously chief risk officer at Jump Trading, was named chief operating officer Monday.
Galaxy is currently trading more than 90 coins. The bulk of the portfolio is in 15 coins, however, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and some DeFi coins, used in decentralized-finance applications like peer-to-peer lending and payments.
“Ethereum is certainly have a moment,” Novogratz said in the Bloomberg Television interview. He said it’s the most decentralized blockchain network and has the most developers and the most applications “by a long shot.” He said he thought Ethereum would trade between $2,800 and $4,000 in a similar “consolidation” period he mentioned for Bitcoin.
“Let’s not miss the big picture for the small picture,” Novogratz said. “We are going through a once-in-a-generational shift in this crypto blockchain evolution, where the financial infrastructure is starting to be rebuilt. That process is picking momentum.”
—With assistance from Matthew Leising.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.