Yahoo Finance Galaxy Digital reveals $76.8M FTX exposure after reporting Q3 loss
Crypto financial services firm Galaxy Digital (GLXY.TO) said it has a $76.8 million exposure to troubled FTX when it reported its $68.1 million third-quarter loss on Wednesday.
The company also announced its co-president, Damian Vanderwilt, is stepping down.
The exposure — of which $47.5 million is in the withdrawal process — comes after FTX on Tuesday struck an emergency deal with crypto's largest exchange Binance to address a significant liquidity crunch, a move that's rattled investors and analysts alike.
"This is a very young and new industry and part of the growing pains is weeding out the bad actors, the excesses, and pivoting towards something that's more trusted," Galaxy Digital Founder and CEO Mike Novogratz said on the company's earnings call. "We've had two, three, four episodes in the last 12 months that have really dented the momentum of this base ... Galaxy has a role to play and [a] very good role to play as a strong, transparent, more risk-managed focused institution."
Shares of Galaxy Digital Holdings, which trade on the Tornoto Stock Exchange, fell 16% at of Wednesday's open from $4.6 to $3.87 per share. Since January, the stock has fallen by 80% from $24.
As previously announced in May, Galaxy entered into a share buyback program. As of October 24, it had purchased 10.5 million shares and plans to continue the program when the current share price didn't reflect the company's value, according to the earnings release.
"While our industry continues to face macroeconomic headwinds and structural evolution, Galaxy remains focused on building for the future state of institutional adoption by taking deliberate steps to transform and simplify our operations," Novogratz said in it the earnings release.
Galaxy did not share more details in its earnings release on Vanderwilt's transition other than saying the former Goldman Sachs partner will remain with the firm as a senior advisor and board director.
Earlier this month, Galaxy revealed to Bloomberg that it had been exploring laying off as much as 15% to 20% of its 375-employee workforce.
“We are always considering optimal team structure and strategy and will share future plans when finalized,” a spokesperson for Galaxy told Yahoo Finance.
The company also showed a $27.9 million impairment loss in its digital-mining business, which has faced added pressure in light of rising electricity prices along with bitcoin’s dwindling profitability against muted prices during Q3.
Of the FTX exposure, “the Company is evaluating the recoverability of these assets,” the earnings statement said.
Updated with share price at market open.
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David Hollerith is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance covering the cryptocurrency and stock markets. Follow him on Twitter at @DsHollers
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