NYDIG | Crypto

The deal to buy NYDIG IF Holdings comprises $7 million in cash and around $35.5 million in stock, as well as the $15 earnout.

BitGo completed its acquisition of NYDIG’s institutional trading business, adding about 30 employees and expanding its derivatives and financing capabilities. BitGo has acquired the institutional trading business of Bitcoin infrastructure company NYDIG, adding derivatives and financing capabilities as it expands services for institutional crypto clients. BitGo said it completed the acquisition of NYDIG’s institutional trading business under a definitive agreement, the company announced Thursday. The transaction includes NYDIG’s institutional client trading relationships and about 30 employees who joined BitGo. The companies did not disclose financial terms. The acquired business provides derivatives, structured products, financing and capital markets services to clients including asset managers, hedge funds and companies. BitGo CEO Mike Belshe said the acquisition will “meaningfully scale” the company’s trading and infrastructure capabilities and allow it to serve a broader range of institutional clients. Rea...

NYDIG’s Greg Cipolaro says a sale below market price and giving up millions of dollars for immediate execution indicates a large directional holder exited a trade on BlackRock’s IBIT last week. A $1.26 billion block trade in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) made last week was likely a whale making a quick exit on a directional trade, says Greg Cipolaro, the head of research at financial services company NYDIG. On Tuesday, an unknown trader sold 29.2 million shares of BlackRock’s IBIT on a dark pool, a private trading platform that institutions use to discreetly make large trades outside public markets, sparking speculation about who made the trade and why. Cipolaro said in a research note on Friday that several indicators were “consistent with a large directional holder exiting a concentrated position rather than a contemporaneous basis-trade unwind.” Read more

Alcoa is nearing a deal to sell its idle upstate New York Massena East smelter to NYDIG as US industrial sites increasingly shift toward Bitcoin mining and AI data centers. US aluminium giant Alcoa is reportedly nearing a deal to offload its long-idle Massena East smelter in upstate New York to Bitcoin mining firm New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG). The company is in advanced discussions and expects the transaction to close “in the middle part of this year,” CEO Bill Oplinger told Bloomberg on Friday. The site, located along the St. Lawrence River, has been inactive since 2014 after Alcoa shut it down amid rising energy costs and global competition. Built for 24/7 heavy industrial operations, aluminum smelters come with pre-existing substations, transmission lines and high-capacity grid connections. That makes them attractive targets for Bitcoin miners and data center operators, who often spend years securing similar infrastructure approvals from scratch. Read more

NYDIG’s Greg Cipolaro says AI could be a “general-purpose technology,” and its effects on the economy could be a boon for Bitcoin. Bitcoin could benefit if artificial intelligence disrupts labor markets or creates volatility that prompts central banks to ease monetary policy, according to Greg Cipolaro, research lead at crypto services firm NYDIG. Cipolaro said in a research note on Friday that AI may prove to be a “general-purpose technology” such as electricity, and the macroeconomic effects it would have on employment, economic growth and risk appetite will affect Bitcoin (BTC). “If AI-driven growth occurs alongside expanding liquidity and contained real rates, that backdrop can be supportive for Bitcoin,” Cipolaro said. “But if stronger growth lifts real yields, tightens policy, and reduces the need for monetary accommodation, Bitcoin may face headwinds.” Read more

Regulations must evolve for tokenized real-world assets to be better integrated with DeFi, so their immediate benefit won’t be significant, says NYDIG’s Greg Cipolaro. The tokenization of stocks won’t immediately be of immense benefit to the crypto market, but the benefits could increase if such assets are allowed to better integrate on blockchains, says NYDIG. “The benefits to networks these assets reside on, such as Ethereum, are light at first, but increase as their access and interoperability and composability increase,” NYDIG global head of research Greg Cipolaro said in a note on Friday. The initial benefits will be the transaction fees charged for using tokenized assets, and the blockchain hosting them will “enjoy increasing network effects” for storing them, Cipolaro added. Read more

The fire forced the facility to go offline to maintain safety, but none of the company's mining hardware was damaged in the incident. Greenidge Generation Holdings, a Bitcoin (BTC) mining company, disclosed that a fire broke out at its mining facility in Dresden, New York, where it co-hosts operations with mining company NYDIG. The fire broke out on Sunday due to an “electrical switchgear failure,” forcing the company to de-energize the entire facility, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. The fire did not damage the mining rigs, and the company said it would resume normal operations within a “few weeks,” without providing specific dates. Read more