Novogratz's Galaxy Digital Crypto Fund Lost $272.7 Million in 2018

Galaxy Digital Holdings, the crypto merchant bank founded by former hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz, lost $97 million in the fourth quarter, according to financials disclosed Monday.

For all of 2018, its first full year of operation, the company lost $272.7 million.

Galaxy also recorded $75.5 million in paper losses on crypto it held that declined in price, $8.5 million in unrealized losses on investments in companies and $88.4 million in operating expenses.

At the end of 2018, Galaxy held 9,724 bitcoin, 92,545 ether, 2.4 million EOS and 60,227 of monero.

According to the report, Galaxy lost money selling bitcoin and ether, which was partially offset by $54.3 million earned selling some cryptocurrencies short.

Interestingly, Galaxy lost as much as $47 million on the depreciation of the Wax token, an asset created to power a platform for trading virtual goods like items in video games.

The firm also took a haircut of $11.3 million on its shares of Canada-based Hut 8 Mining Corp, and $11.1 million on crypto wallet firm Xapo.

As of the end of 2018, Galaxy held $41.9 million in the stock of Block.

One's, the creator of EOS, plus some $5 million more in Galaxy EOS VC Fund focused on developing the EOS.IO ecosystem.

Galaxy also invested $26 million in mining businesses, including Hut 8 Mining and Bitfury; $7.5 million in custodian and multi-signature wallet provider BitGo; and $5 million in Bakkt, the bitcoin futures exchange yet-to-be-launched by New York Stock Exchange parent ICE. Other investments include Silvergate Capital Corporation, parent of the crypto friendly Silvergate Bank; tokenization startups AlphaPoint and Templum; investment vehicles Cryptology Asset and Pantera Venture Fund; and Mercantile Global Holdings, a Puerto Rico-based entity operating the recently founded San Juan Mercantile Exchange.