CoinDesk engages Lazard to explore sale, as DCG crisis grows

Crypto trade publication CoinDesk is exploring a potential sale, hiring advisors at Lazard to weigh a move that would remove it from Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group.

“Over the last few months, we have received numerous inbound indications of interest in CoinDesk,” CEO Kevin Worth said in an emailed statement. The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the media company’s hiring of Lazard.

CoinDesk, which launched in 2013, broke the first story about potential balance sheet improprieties at Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research. That reporting sparked a downward spiral at crypto exchange FTX, ultimately leading to the collapse of the company in November, the arrest of Bankman-Fried and multiple regulatory probes.

The contagion from the FTX meltdown hit CoinDesk sister company Genesis, a crypto lender also owned by DCG that’s hired advisors for a potential bankruptcy filing after freezing withdrawals and loan originations. Genesis is also the subject of an SEC charge alongside crypto exchange Gemini.

Worth said Lazard will help CoinDesk “explore various options to attract growth capital to the CoinDesk business, which may include a partial or full sale.”

A representative for DCG did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

WATCH: The SEC charges Genesis for unregistered securities sales