Regulated Digital Assets Exchange Bullish Acquires Media Company CoinDesk

Bullish, a regulated digital assets exchange, has acquired CoinDesk, a media, events and data company serving the global cryptocurrency economy.

The move aims to accelerate CoinDesk’s global expansion and growth, the companies said in a Monday (Nov. 20) press release.

Bullish plans to inject capital into CoinDesk’s growth initiatives, enabling the launch of new services, events and products, according to the release. CoinDesk will continue to be led by the existing management team and will operate as an independent subsidiary within Bullish.

“With renewed momentum in the crypto economy as well as investment from Bullish, we look forward to capitalizing on the many opportunities ahead for product development and expansion,” CoinDesk CEO Kevin Worth said in the release.

In addition, CoinDesk announced that Matt Murray, former editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, has been appointed as chair of CoinDesk’s Editorial Committee to assure its journalistic independence, according to the release.

Since its launch in November 2021, Bullish has executed over $300 billion in total trading volume and ranks among the top three global exchanges for spot trading volume of bitcoin and ether, the release said. The company plans to expand its offerings by introducing perpetual futures trading on its regulated and compliant exchange.

The transaction was advised by Lazard for Digital Currency Group (DCG) and CoinDesk, and Citi for Bullish, per the release.

It was reported in January that CoinDesk was seeking a buyer and that the news outlet had received several expressions of interest.

That report came during a crisis within the crypto industry and hours before another company owned by Digital Currency Group (DCG), the crypto lender Genesis Global Capital, was reported to be on the verge of filing for bankruptcy.

CoinDesk reported $50 million in revenue last year from online advertising, events and indexes. The media company was acquired by DCG in 2016 for $500,000.

In the Monday press release, Bullish CEO Tom Farley said: “Bullish will immediately inject capital into several of CoinDesk’s most exciting growth initiatives which will power the launch of new services, events and products. We also want to express our unwavering support for CoinDesk’s commitment to journalistic independence.”

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