DCG sells shares in Grayscale crypto trusts in push to raise funds – FT

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FILE PHOTO: Representations of the Ripple, Bitcoin, Etherum and Litecoin virtual currencies are seen on motherboard in this illustration picture

(Reuters) -Digital Currency Group (DCG) is selling shares in several of its cryptocurrency funds at a steep discount and has started offloading its holdings in investment vehicles run by subsidiary Grayscale, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

Woes have piled up for DCG, which is backed by SoftBank Group Corp, with its lending unit Genesis filing for bankruptcy protection, owing creditors at least $3.4 billion after being toppled by a market rout that also swept up exchange FTX and lender BlockFi.

The reported move comes as DCG is trying to raise funds to support its collapsed lending units under Genesis.

“This is simply part of our ongoing portfolio rebalancing,” a DCG spokesperson said in an emailed statement when contacted by Reuters.

Grayscale did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

A quarter of DCG’s stock in its ethereum fund has been sold, raising as much as $22 million in several trades since Jan. 24, the newspaper said, citing U.S. securities filings seen by it.

DCG has also moved to sell smaller blocks of shares in its Litecoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, Ethereum Classic Trust and Digital Large Cap Fund, the report added.

Owned by Barry Silbert, DCG runs a portfolio of crypto companies in addition to Genesis, including crypto news and events site CoinDesk and New York-based Grayscale, a major digital asset manager.

(Reporting by Sneha Bhowmik and Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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