Bitstamp, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Europe has been acquired by Belgium-based financial business NXMH, which is a subsidiary of South Korean NXC Corporation.
According to Reuters, the exchange was founded in 2011 by Nejc Kodric and Merlak. Kodic is the current CEO of the company. Coming from a startup background they had been working in a garage with servers and computers and thousand euros in capital.
The Acquisition of Bitshamp.
The acquisition wasn’t planned and the exchange received a lot of offers before and also some of the serious buyers from the US, China mentioned the CEO Kodric to the Financial Times.
But the exchanged opted to go with NXMH due to that it will allow the Luxembourg exchange to operate as it is. Kodric also added the main reason for agreeing on this acquisition is for the mission, vision, and leadership of the company to remain the same.
In a Bitstamp Blogpost Kodrič says:
[ctt template=”7″ link=”OmenK” via=”yes” ]Bitstamp has been regularly approached by suitors for quite some time. The reason why we finally decided to sell the company is a combination of the quality of the buyer, the quality of the offer and the fact that the industry is at a point where consolidation makes sense.[/ctt]
All-Cash Deal was signed between the two companies on October 25th. NXMH is acquiring 80% of the crypto exchange Bitstamp. One of the co-founder Merlak sold his entire 30% of share.
Pantera Capital which had invested in Bitstamp in 2014 holds 6% and the CEO Kodric holds 10% stake. And rest is acquired by NXMH. But Kodric will remain as the CEO of the crypto exchange even after the acquisition.
There are no much details of the exact value of the acquisition. But there was one tweet in March the by a New York Times reporter Nathaniel Popper saying that Bitstamp is in the Final stage of acquisition for ~$400m. But there is no official confirmation on the price.
South Korea’s NXC Corporation is mainly one of biggest online games platform in Korea, Japan, Europe, and the US. The firm owns one of largest gaming companies like Nexon Co. Ltd. Also Korbit a cryptocurrency exchange has been owned by the company. And Korbit and Bitstamp will be running independently.
Let us know in the comment below what you think about the acquisition of Bitstamp.