Crypto media The Block sells $70m majority stake to Foresight Ventures
Crypto media firm The Block sold a majority stake to Foresight Ventures in a deal, valuing it at $70 million.
Most capital is used to buy out former CEO Mike McCaffrey’s stake. He resigned after the news that he secretly accepted millions from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
CEO of The Block, Larry Cermak, confirmed the deal on X (formerly Twitter). He added that he will stay CEO, and nothing else is impacted. Cermak noted that running the company and getting it to a more sustainable state while working at this deal was very difficult.
Foresight CEO Forest Bai will become chairman of The Block. Partner Tony Cheng will also take a seat on the board of directors, according to Axios. That gives Foresight two of the four spots.
Foresight currently owns minority stakes in three other crypto media organizations in Asia: Chinese sites BlockTempo and Foresight News, and Korean-language site CoinNess.
Coindesk also might be sold
In August, cryptocurrency media platform CoinDesk cut 45% of its editorial staff as its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) plans to sell the project.
Before this, the media reported about the impending sale of CoinDesk at a valuation of $125m. A group of investors, led by Matthew Rojak of Tally Capital and Peter Wessenes of Capital 6, is in the final stages of negotiations.