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Barry Silbert

Founder & CEO

Digital Currency Group

POSITION

Founder & CEO

COMPANY

Digital Currency Group

COUNTRY

USA

Website

Digital Currency Group

SCENE

Business

SOCIAL

LinkedIn

Twitter

Barry Silbert is the founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), a company that aims to launch, incubate, purchase, and invest in companies in the digital currency and blockchain space. DCG is one of the most prolific investors in the industry, having supported over 130 companies, including BitGo, BitPay, Circle, Coinbase, Kraken, Ripple Labs, and Xapo.

DCG also owns three companies: Grayscale Investments, the largest asset manager in the digital currency space, Genesis Trading, the largest regulated “over the counter” crypto trader, and CoinDesk, one of the most renowned media and events companies in the blockchain industry.

Barry has been referred to as the “King of Crypto,” as he is viewed as an influential thought leader in the space. He is quite confident in Bitcoin’s potential to surpass gold in investment value, going so far as to promote this viewpoint in a “Drop Gold” marketing campaign for Grayscale.

“The gold industry has done a fantastic job of marketing an overpriced metal, but Bitcoin has superior physical properties and market utility,” he said, as reported by Coinspeaker. “I believe that Bitcoin will become the store-of-value for our digital age.”

He has proclaimed that the ICO market is “dead,” and that most altcoins have no use.

“I’m not a believer in the vast majority of digital tokens and I believe most will go to zero,” he told CNBC in February 2019. “Almost every ICO was just an attempt to raise money but there was no use for the underlying token.”

Prior to founding DCG, Barry launched SecondMarket, a platform that enables private companies and investment funds to customize, control, and seamlessly execute primary and secondary transactions. The company was acquired by NASDAQ in 2015, and its name was changed to NASDAQ Private Market.

Barry has received numerous honors and awards, including being named as Entrepreneur of the Year awards by both Ernst & Young and Crain’s and being listed on Fortune’s 40 Under 40.

Last updated: May 6, 2019