When exploring various knowledge and elements in the blockchain and Web3 fields, the interplay between financial attributes and technological aspects often confuses many people. The blockchain industry as a whole exhibits a combination of underlying technology and financial models.
While this does not imply that the entire blockchain industry is essentially a purely financial sector, it is undeniable that many aspects, from prominent financial investments to the current mainstream cryptocurrency market, as well as various application-layer projects, revolve around the flow of capital. Naturally, practitioners and investors are more concerned with the circulation of funds. Among them, actions from leading investment institutions often serve as a barometer of market trends.
然而直到2017年，代表各类传统资本的公司才开始进入区块链行业。在加密货币市场蓬勃发展的时期，以区块链投资为主的公司开始涉足该行业，并不断拓展相关业务。
Galaxy Digital 成为这一时期的代表性公司之一。
什么是 Galaxy Digital？
Galaxy Digital is a technology-driven financial service provider and investment management company that provides a comprehensive range of financial solutions covering the digital asset ecosystem to institutions and direct clients. Galaxy Digital 经营贸易、资产管理、投资银行、采矿和本金投资等业务。 Its CEO and founder is Michael Daffer.
（图片来源：galaxy.com）
Galaxy Digital成立于2017年底，正是加密货币交易市场不断扩大的时期。 2018年年中，通过反向并购在加拿大多伦多证券交易所上市。自成立以来，该公司的业务主要集中在加密货币领域。
最初，Galaxy Digital 有四大业务线，其中交易和投资业务多年来利润最高。但在公司的成长过程中，咨询和资产管理业务尚未全面发展。
As the core profit-generating segment, the trading business primarily provides over-the-counter spot trading for clients. However, its overall market performance is highly correlated with the trends in the cryptocurrency market.随着2018年至2022年牛市向熊市的转变，Galaxy Digital的交易业务经历了明显的起伏。
关于投资方向，众所周知，由于入市较早，Galaxy Digital 的选择余地较多。 However, perhaps because of its relatively short establishment period, the company’s foundation and strength in the investment field were insufficient to meet business demands. Therefore, in the early stages, Galaxy Digital entrusted certain investment activities, such as ICO investments, to experienced investment institutions such as Pantera and Blockchain Capital.
这两家投资机构的市场运作并没有给Galaxy Digital带来预期的效果，至少在早期是这样。 After all, during 2018-2019, the true bull market had yet to arrive, and as a result, investments in many projects did not yield remarkable returns in the short term.
Especially, the ICO fund under Pantera experienced an 86% decline, leaving Galaxy Digital with only a little over 2 million USD from the initial 17 million USD investment. However, fortunately, this fund had previously invested in star projects like Filecoin and Polkadot, and the subsequent launch of their mainnet tokens helped offset a significant portion of the losses.
咨询和资产管理业务方面，银河数字在后续发展中调整了业务线。 It dismantled the consulting services aimed at institutions and project parties, incorporating them into solution designs tailored to target clients’ needs.
不过，资产管理业务现已投入运营，为客户提供主动或被动的风险投资工具。在此基础上，Galaxy Digital 为目标客户提供构建数字基础设施、解决挖矿和网络安全问题的解决方案。
Currently, Galaxy Digital’s client base includes institutional investors, project parties, banks, market makers, mining platforms, and various other types.它还成为传统资本和区块链投资之间的中介桥梁。 The company also engages in research and investment-related ancillary businesses, aligning with its founder’s earliest vision of being an investment bank in the crypto field.
The Origin of Galaxy Digital
The founder of Galaxy Digital, Michael Daffer, can be described as a Wall Street legend, having experienced numerous ups and downs in his business career. He worked at the renowned Goldman Sachs for 11 years, starting as a hedge fund manager and later becoming a partner.然而，他在 1999 年高盛上市仅一年后就离开了。
（Image Source:galaxy.com）
A year later, Michael Daffer became a partner at Fortress Investment Group, which eventually went public and boosted Novogratz’s net worth to $2.3 billion. However, due to investment mistakes, he left Fortress Investment Group in 2015. Later on, Fortress Investment Group was acquired by SoftBank and became its subsidiary.
在 Fortress 任职期间，Michael Daffer 受到该公司合伙人 Peter Briger 的启发，进入了加密货币世界。 Peter Briger introduced Michael Daffer to Wences Casares, an Argentinean who was not only an early believer in cryptocurrencies but also an investor.
两人之间的互动让 Michael Daffer 接触到了加密货币的潜力。 In 2013, he personally invested $7 million in cryptocurrencies when a BTC was only around $100.
有趣的是，在精英富有投资者的世界里，他们的关系有时会让圈子显得更小。 As mentioned earlier, SoftBank acquired Fortress Investment Group, and naturally, Masayoshi Son, following the suggestion of the Chairman of Fortress Investment Group, started paying attention to BTC.
However, since Masayoshi Son’s interest in BTC came relatively late, he bought BTC during the bull market in 2017, and when the price plummeted, he sold it to cut his losses. This investment loss became one of his few investment blemishes.
Also in 2017, Michael Daffer stated that 20% of his assets were in BTC and ETH, and during those years, he earned over $250 million from investing in cryptocurrencies.
Perhaps this was the catalyst for Michael Daffer to establish an investment bank centered around cryptocurrencies. After all, looking at the development prospects of cryptocurrencies from a capital perspective would yield different conclusions than typical cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Michael Daffer’s extensive Wall Street background enabled him to seize opportunities in the cryptocurrency market.
Thus, on November 30, 2017, Galaxy Digital was officially registered in the Cayman Islands.一周后，交易业务上线，恰逢BTC历史上最大的牛市（后来于2021年被超越）。 Less than a month after the establishment of Galaxy Digital, BTC reached its all-time high of around $20,000, and the market subsequently entered a long bear market phase.
However, market fluctuations were not the primary focus of Galaxy Digital in its early stages. Compared to chasing prices for immediate profits, Michael Daffer excelled at capital operations in the market game, aligning with Galaxy Digital’s founding vision as a cryptocurrency investment bank.
因此，上市成为银河数码最初的目标。有了高盛和Fortress上市的经验，Michael Daffer自然选择了最快的路线——反向并购。
2018年5月，Galaxy Digital与加拿大公司First Coin Capital Corp.合并，成立一家名为Galaxy Digital Holdings LP的有限合伙公司，成为Galaxy Digital的主要运营实体。
随后，Galaxy Digital 收购了一家在多伦多创业板上市的制药公司 Bradmer Pharmaceuticals Inc.，并将其更名为 Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd.，最终于 2018 年 8 月完成反向收购并上市。
The most important asset of this publicly listed holding company is its ownership of Galaxy Digital Holdings LP, holding 23.3% of its shares. In other words, Galaxy Digital Holdings LP listed its own 23.3% equity.此外，Michael Novogratz 拥有的 Galaxy Group Investments LLC 是 Galaxy Digital Holdings LP 的唯一普通合伙人。
Through these actions, Galaxy Digital ultimately achieved the listing of its corporate entity, followed by a series of IPOs and stock offerings.有了充足的资金，Michael Daffer 开始将公司的投资重点放在参与加密货币市场上。
Galaxy 数字业务概览
不过，当时加密市场的整体市场规模还处于不断发展的阶段。 In an emerging and immature field, relying solely on capital investment for returns would be difficult to sustain the company’s future growth. Galaxy Digital 在早期阶段也认识到了这一点。
（Image Source:galaxy.com）
Therefore, in the early stages, the business lines that supported the company’s revenue primarily served the over-the-counter (OTC) trading of cryptocurrencies for institutional investors. Of course, the initial investment activities also yielded certain returns.
如前所述，Galaxy Digital最初的业务划分以及随后的调整已经得到了适当的解释。 After adjusting business lines, the company’s core business lines have changed to global market trading, asset management, and digital infrastructure solutions.
Global Market Trading
Capital Liquidity
电子交易：通过API或GUI连接到Galaxy Digital的平台，用户可以在场外交易领域访问加密货币和法定货币。用户可以利用平台工具来减少市场影响并为交易对手寻找主要接入点。
OTC Trading: Galaxy Digital provides risk management solutions to facilitate bulk risk transfer while reducing market impact and offering customized solutions for a range of high-touch trading counterparties.
Derivatives
Galaxy Digital’s derivatives services offer physical or cash settlements, as well as futures delivery services. The platform enables competitive trading through Galaxy’s exchanges and market-making networks.
Galaxy Digital eliminates the need to manage multiple liquidity provider accounts, minimizing the risk of exposing users’ trading activities. Furthermore, the platform’s significant trading volume effectively meets users’ risk storage requirements.
Loans and Structured Products
Galaxy Digital offers a range of product services, including margin loans, miner financing, revolving credit financing, trust fund financing, application loans, and professional loans. It provides 24/7 round-the-clock service and has a dedicated team for reviewing and managing professional loan arrangements.
Strategic Opportunities
Galaxy Digital can build infrastructure to support the integrity of various protocols and ecosystem projects, while providing additional liquidity services to promote token liquidity in both CeFi and DeFi scenarios.
In conjunction with this, there is a special custody management solution that enhances risk management, liquidity, and returns for founders, foundations, and crypto users in projects. Galaxy Digital业务线覆盖的广泛客户也构成了该平台的潜在客户。
投资银行业务
In its core investment business direction, Galaxy Digital provides financing, mergers, acquisitions, and customized strategic services for target clients, effectively covering the investment needs of companies in the crypto field.
Since 2019, Galaxy Digital has played advisory, agency, and management roles in several investment cases, including some well-known entities in the crypto field.
（Image Source:galaxy.com）
资产管理
Galaxy Digital 提供有关市场动态、市场结构、产品路线图和竞争格局的见解。
To implement the asset management business, Galaxy Digital offers three asset management products: Galaxy Funds, Galaxy Ventures, and Galaxy Interactive.
Among them, Galaxy Funds include passive and active funds. Passive funds mainly focus on managing investments in BTC and ETH, while also providing specialized index funds to offer users more diversified asset custody solutions.
主动型基金包括 Galaxy Liquid Alpha Fund、GVH Multi-Strategy Fund 和 GVH Risk Fund。与被动型基金相比，主动型基金采取更为激进的策略，具有更高的风险和潜在回报。
Galaxy Ventures is a dedicated branch of Galaxy Digital for asset investment and custody services, catering to all types of projects in the blockchain industry at the current stage.
Galaxy Interactive focuses more on the cross-section of content, technology, and social commerce in which Galaxy Digital invests, with a focus on video games and infrastructure that powers immersive virtual worlds.这不仅支持行业发展，还能产生长期投资回报。
数字基础设施解决方案
As mentioned earlier, Galaxy Digital’s business in this area focuses on BTC mining, network validation, and security.
In terms of BTC mining, Galaxy Digital provides hosting services and acquired Helios from Argo Blockchain in December 2022, giving Galaxy Digital access to a large-scale BTC mining facility capable of operating at a power capacity of up to 180 megawatts, providing hosting services to miners worldwide.
同时，Galaxy Digital本身也从事BTC挖矿业务。尽管由于比特币供应和产量的减少，挖矿不再像以前那么有利可图，但它仍然是主流加密货币挖矿的一个可行选择。
基于自身资源，Galaxy Digital采用MiFi模式。 It integrates a system network that includes BTC miners, trading, hedging, and financing through comprehensive platform services, providing corresponding solutions to clients.
（Image Source:galaxy.com）
In terms of network security and validation, Galaxy Digital has partnered with GK8, a company specializing in enterprise-level custody platforms. This partnership enables financial institutions to drive new revenue streams through digital assets while protecting them from network attacks.
The collaboration with GK8 complements Galaxy Digital’s business in blockchain infrastructure and provides underlying security technology support for the company’s various business lines.
The above is a rough introduction to Galaxy Digital’s current business lines, demonstrating the development trajectory followed by the company, which originally established itself as a crypto investment bank.无论是投资、资产管理，还是矿业投资，银河数字大多扮演的是行业倡导者和支持者的角色，多年来的案例就是证明。
Galaxy Digital 和 a16z
If Galaxy Digital aims to become the Goldman Sachs of the cryptocurrency market, people will inevitably compare it to similar companies in the industry. Among them, a16z can be said to be one of the most renowned and influential investment firms in recent years, especially in blockchain and cryptocurrencies.无论是从业者还是加密货币用户，普遍都听说过它的名字。
与抓住市场机遇进入区块链行业的 Galaxy Digital 不同，a16z 成立的时间要早得多。 a16z由Andreessen和Ben Horowitz于2009年共同创立。Andreessen是早期互联网公司Netscape的创始人，而Ben Horowitz则创立了软件公司Opsware。 a16z于2009年成立后，早期投资了Facebook、Twitter等公司。
（Image Source:twitter.com）
作为一家已有10多年历史的投资公司，a16z最初被称为专注于互联网行业的新兴公司。虽然2016年就已经投资了Lyft、Airbnb、Pinterest、Coinbase、Slack、Okta、Stripe、Robinhood等知名企业，但其投资回报与红杉资本、Benchmark Capital等行业知名企业不相上下，主要原因在于其长期的投资策略。
进入区块链行业后，a16z开始投资一些区块链发展早期的公司，其中最引人注目的例子就是Coinbase。当区块链技术早期许多投资者并不看好加密货币交易所时，a16z很早就认识并支持他们。成为Coinbase直接上市前最大的机构投资者，迄今为止，a16z已从Coinbase获得了数十亿美元的投资利润。从 2013 年开始，a16z 在 B 轮融资期间向 Coinbase 投资了 2500 万美元，直到 2020 年，a16z 又对该公司进行了 8 笔投资。
然而，直到 2021 年，a16z 才获得了显着的行业认可。当年，其投资组合中有 43 家公司上市或被收购，是 a16z 有记录以来任何一年的三倍。这加快了他们后续投资的步伐，平台交易量较2020年增长了一倍。他们的投资重点转向了区块链相关领域。
This is the long-term investment strategy advocated by a16z, which started its investment activities in the early stages of the blockchain industry and achieved remarkable returns over the years.
目前，a16z还投资了Uniswap、Solana、MakerDAO、Dfinity、Chia等区块链相关项目，涵盖Web3、稳定币、交易所、基础设施、NFT、DeFi、GameFi等。它已成为加密货币投资的标杆。
从明确的结论中可以看出，相比于Galaxy Digital，a16z在区块链领域取得了更为骄人的投资成果。这是由于他们进入区块链行业的时间和所关注的目标客户群的差异所致。
a16z entered the industry when it was flourishing, and most of the future renowned projects were still in the early stages of accumulation.当2021年又一个牛市到来时，双方积累的资源自然就出现了明显的差异。
此外，作为一家发展历史较长的老牌投资公司，a16z在区块链行业的资金来源无法与像Galaxy Digital这样严重依赖创始人个人资金的新兴投资公司相比。由于长期耕耘，a16z已经从一家纯粹的投资公司转型为一家创业服务经济公司。除了之前的成功投资案例外，他们还直接影响了舆论，许多投资者甚至将a16z视为行业思想领袖。
而 Galaxy Digital 显然缺乏这样的条件。公司自成立以来，主要配套业务仍为贸易业务，虽然有成功的投资案例，但缺乏长期的股权投资活动。这也是Galaxy Digital不断拓展采矿和研究业务的原因之一。
不过，虽然Galaxy Digital无法与a16z的高涨声誉相提并论，但两家公司在目标客户和业务发展方向上却存在显着差异。未来，只要平台提供足够强大的产品和服务，Galaxy Digital可能会以资产托管为主，并在该领域发力。
The Development and Market Performance of Galaxy Digital
由于其最初专注于场外现货交易，并且其交易产品集中于主流加密货币，Galaxy Digital 的市场表现与整个加密货币市场密切相关。
其交易业务的主要交易对手包括加密货币挖矿相关公司、加密货币基金和风险投资公司、家族办公室和高净值个人、涉及支付和托管的金融机构、对冲基金、资产管理和养老基金。 Galaxy Digital 交易 BTC、ETH、BCH、LTC、XMR、DASH、ETC 和 ZEC 等资产以及其他流行的加密货币。
This makes Galaxy Digital vulnerable to market fluctuations and its revenue status follows the overall market trends.
银河数字自2018年上市以来，连续几个季度的市场表现本来可以较为理想。再加上对贸易业务的依赖，公司不得不调整业务线。不过，在投资业务方面，Galaxy Digital的表现却有些喜忧参半。
In the early stages, Galaxy Digital engaged in a series of proprietary investments, aiming to achieve high returns outside the traditional fund format.该业务专注于为生态系统内的公司提供战略和长期资本，包括大型或小型加密货币项目、ICO、Pre-ICO、早期或后期风险投资、成长股权、私募股权以及各种担保、无担保和结构性贷款。
此外，还对其他基金和机构进行了投资，以涵盖行业内不同类型的生态系统和项目。
Galaxy Digital invested in several limited partnership funds and investment institutions. This was mostly due to the differences in investment project stages and niche areas.然而，这一选择并没有给公司带来合理的回报。 The volatility of the cryptocurrency market is more pronounced compared to traditional financial markets, as seen in the losses mentioned earlier with Pantera, resulting in Galaxy Digital’s losses in 2019.
然而，由于Block.one的强劲表现，对Cryptology的投资为Galaxy Digital带来了可观的回报。在随后的出售和业务剥离过程中，Galaxy Digital 持有市值约 1600 万美元的 EOS 代币。 Coupled with the sale of equity, Galaxy Digital obtained tens of millions of dollars in profit.
此后，Galaxy Digital 开始直接投资某些加密货币，著名的例子是 WAX 和 FTX，包括门罗币等稳定币。
FTX欺诈事件的具体细节这里不做讨论。 In summary, Galaxy Digital, constrained by its business direction, shifted its focus to early-stage and mid-stage project investments after experiencing poor performance in its initial investment business. This strategy yielded significant profits during the bull market of 2021.
结论
In general, Galaxy Digital, as a blockchain-focused investment company, demonstrates its characteristics through the diversity of its business and comprehensive coverage of various fields.其投资方向主要集中在加密货币，对NFT、合约质押等新兴资产的投资较少。这导致其在过去几年中相对低调。
However, Galaxy Digital’s contributions to infrastructure development and asset management are evident. In the current market downturn, the company has been diligently accumulating resources behind the scenes, perhaps making a wise choice to await the arrival of the bull market.
