Crypto media The Block sells $70m majority stake to Foresight Ventures

By Anna Kharton

Nov 13, 2023 at 1:50 PM UTC

Edited by Yana Khlebnikova

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Crypto media The Block sells $70m majority stake to Foresight Ventures

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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.

1/ Big news today as we announce Foresight Ventures acquired a majority stake in The Block. This tx gives The Block a fresh start ahead of the bull market and provides us with more capital to build out new exciting products and expand our footprint into Asia and the Middle East. https://t.co/1ohnptiKwQ
— Larry Cermak (@lawmaster) November 13, 2023

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.