Galaxy Digital Cancels $1.2B BitGo Acquisition

Investment firm Galaxy Digital has ended its $1.2 billion acquisition agreement with digital assets platform BitGo.

Galaxy terminated the deal after BitGo missed a July 31 deadline to turn over audited financial statements for last year that comply with the terms of the deal, according to a Monday (Aug. 15) press release. Galaxy will not have to pay a fee for the termination.

BitGo was not immediately available for comment Monday.

“Galaxy remains positioned for success and to take advantage of strategic opportunities to grow in a sustainable manner,” said Galaxy Founder and CEO Mike Novogratz in the release. “We are committed to continuing our process to list in the U.S. and providing our clients with a prime solution that truly makes Galaxy a one-stop shop for institutions.”

The companies announced the acquisition in August of last year, saying it would make Galaxy a full-service platform for institutions seeking access to the cryptocurrency economy.

Read more: Galaxy Digital Buys BitGo

Galaxy said in the Monday release it plans to complete a “proposed reorganization and domestication to become a Delaware-based company” and from there list on the Nasdaq, following a review by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and stock exchange approval.

The company said in the release it is also planning to launch Galaxy One Prime, “a new product offering for institutional investors that will integrate trading, lending and derivatives alongside access to qualified custody all through a unified tech platform.”

The news comes nearly a month after Novogratz criticized the crypto industry’s “inane risk management” in the wake of the $48 billion collapse of the Terra/Luna stablecoin ecosystem.

See more: Crypto Pays Steep Price for Due Diligence Delinquency

Speaking about the industry at a conference hosted by Bloomberg, Novogratz said the companies that investors and venture capitalists had backed “took massive leverage, took asset liability mismatch — which means they had short term deposits on what they lent them out long. And those are the two ways people always go bankrupt.”