Galaxy Digital 3Q19 Earnings Recap: A sober reset of expectations over the next 6 months, as crypto industry remains “challenging”

Quick TakeWe refreshed our Galaxy Digital coverage from new 3Q19 filingsAs a publicly traded crypto “merchant bank” with a portfolio of over 45 investments, highlights rare data points of private investment performance across the industryThe trading business grew its active counterparties 10%, and its onboarded counterparties 47% since 2Q19, with over 300 counterparties in total at the end of the third quarterUnrealized losses on liquid digital assets pile up: Galaxy’s fair value of WAX is more than $45 million below the cost on the books (~97% the carrying cost since Dec 2018), while other digital asset holdings (with a total network value below $1 billion) are now trading more than 93% below cost as of 3Q19The largest contributors to the net unrealized loss on investments of $4.8 million in the quarter were investments in Mercantile Global Holdings($4.0 million), AlphaPoint ($3.1 million), and Hut 8 Mining ($2.5 million); partially offset by unrealized gains on investments in NuCypher ($4.3 million) and BlockFi ($3.5 million)According to filings, the Advisory business has a number of active mandates for potential financing transactions in various stages of execution, and its investment banking backlog has grown compared to 2Q19