Overstock Saying “Bye” To Blockchain Business?

After having just made its partnership announcement with ShapeShift earlier this week to start accepting all cryptocurrencies as payments, Overstock may be parting ways with its blockchain business. Upon millions of dollars lost, Overstock and Medici Ventures could possibly part ways sometime next year, according to Bloomberg.

In Q2 of this year, Overstock lost $9.7 million, which is six times higher than the same time last year and includes a $3.3-million loss from its blockchain subsidiary. With Medici’s slight improvement from Q1, it saw an $8-million loss in Q2.

Medici Ventures President Jonathan Johnson commented on this news of breaking ties with Overstock. “We see Medici as eventually becoming a standalone. It has some synergies with Overstock, but it’s still a very different business,” Johnson said. He added that the company’s valuation may go up through separating itself from Overstock and that losses like what happened in Q2 will occur for quite some time due to its blockchain-based trading platform T Zero’s product losses.

Overstock’s CEO Patrick Byrne confirmed that the company may end up going private in the near future. “I’d be very interested in going private at or before the end of this year in the absence of some major understanding in the marketplace of what we’re doing. If I get to the end of this year and the market does not see the value that I see, I think that it is time,” Byrne said.