BitGo buys NYDIG trading arm to expand derivatives and financing

BitGo acquired NYDIG’s institutional trading business and completed the transaction. The deal adds derivatives, structured products, financing and capital-markets capabilities for professional clients. The acquired business serves asset managers, hedge funds, corporates and family offices. A regulatory filing valued the transaction at about $42.5 million. BitGo will pay $7 million in cash. BitGo will issue roughly $35.5 million in stock. The agreement includes a $10 million cash earnout tied to one revenue milestone. It also includes up to $5 million in additional cash and additional shares tied to a second milestone. The agreement includes retention awards for transferred staff. Roughly 30 NYDIG employees will join BitGo. BitGo said the acquisition strengthens its trading platform alongside its custody, settlement and wallet infrastructure. CEO and co-founder Mike Belshe said institutions increasingly want one partner for custody, trading, financing and settlement. NYDIG will focus on power generation, Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing data centers. NYDIG said that business has a development pipeline exceeding 3 gigawatts. NYDIG CEO Tejas Shah said the trading unit complements BitGo’s infrastructure and identified the high-performance computing opportunity as the company’s biggest runway. BitGo debuted on the NYSE in an initial public offering that valued the company at around $2 billion. BitGo later cut about 15% of its staff in crypto industry layoffs linked to artificial intelligence. BitGo also launched its USDS stablecoin as it expanded beyond custody.