David Moore 
After a successful bid to acquire GK8 from the bankrupt crypto lender Celsius, Mike Novogratz’s financial services company Galaxy Digital has finished its purchase of GK8 and its institutional self-custody platform. This cutting-edge solution will remain available for public use and be integrated into Galaxy Digital’s upcoming prime brokerage venture –GalaxyOne– which will revolutionize the industry with innovative technology.
GK8 Was a Part of the Recently Bankrupt Celsius
Last July, Celsius was forced to declare bankruptcy when the crypto market plummeted, and GK8 – acquired for $115 million in November 2021- went up on sale. This allowed Galaxy Digital to swoop in with an offer of approximately $44 million, a significant 60% reduction from the original purchase price. Despite initially being involved in a 1.2 billion dollar deal with BitGo custodian, Galaxy withdrew, leaving them open to litigation but granting them access to this unprecedented discount opportunity.
Investing in the recently launched GalaxyOne platform will bring a broad range of financial services for institutions, such as trading, lending, derivatives, and mixed portfolio margining. Not to mention GK8 custodial options! Besides this, Galaxy has gained an office in Tel Aviv with almost 40 personnel joining the team, including its founders, who have been hired on to supervise custody technology operations.
Mike Novogratz, founder, and CEO of Galaxy Digital, stated in an announcement to CoinDesk that the acquisition of GK8 would fulfill their commitment to clients for more secure and innovative custody services. He went on further to highlight that not only will they continue supplying highly valuable cold storage technology but also leverage the GK8 team’s expertise when launching a comprehensive financial platform in digital assets.
GK 8 Provides Self-Custody Services for Institutions
Established in 2018, GK8 solutions are specifically designed for traditional financial institutions and crypto-native companies such as banks, hedge funds, eToro’s clients, etc. This infrastructure allows customers to benefit from staking functionalities, decentralized finance (DeFi) network integration support for NFTs, trading services, and so much more!
GK8 utilizes two unique methods to ensure the safety of your digital assets. The first is a multi-party computation (MPC) vault, which splits the private key needed for access between multiple co-signers; this allows transactions to be processed quickly and securely. If you’re looking for even greater security, GK8‘s cold vault offers manual processing with the utmost protection.
GK8 has developed groundbreaking cryptographic techniques that allow its cold vault to remain offline and completely secure when completing transactions. By using these patented technologies, the private keys are shielded from hackers while still being able to receive blockchain-validated data necessary for verifying a transaction – all without going online. CEO Lior Lamesh further elaborated on this innovative process in an interview with CoinDesk.
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