Bitstamp Crypto Exchange Acquired by South Korean NXMH Investment Firm

Bitstamp, a prominent crypto exchange, has been acquired by the Belgian firm NXMH, which is owned by the South Korean conglomerate NXC. The company sold most of its ownership to the Korean group and the CEO Nejc Jodric has only retained a minority ownership stake on the company, as he will continue to run its operations.

The media was not informed of the values of the sale, though. However, we can make some speculation considering that the company was valued at $60 million USD in 2016, which was before the Bitcoin craze, so it is probably worth more now and we can probably speculate that the sale was worth a lot more than $100 million USD.

During the deal, the company bought an 80 percent stake with the deal. This included the 30 percent stake that the CEO of Bitstamp had along with the Damian Merlak, co-founder of the company. Merlak has been not active in the company since 2015.

Pantera Capital, which was a backer of the exchange, will retain its 6 percent ownership stake and the exchange will continue to operate in an independent way, so the main change, for now, will be that the company has a new owner.

The customers of Bitstamp, the CEO affirms, will not feel the impact of the sale directly as the roadmap of the company will continue on its trajectory for a while before any changes are made. Since the CEO is still the same, decisions are also likely to be similar. He has also affirmed that the company understands the industry and has similar goals to the former owners.

NXC, the parent company of NXMH, also owns Korbit, a popular South Korean crypto exchange, and Nexon, a popular maker of desktop and mobile games.

The CEO has affirmed that “unlike some of the competitors” the company is keen on setting high standards of compliance and the sale will help this to happen. The investment manager of NXMH, Hendrik Ghys, has affirmed that Bitstamp is one of the oldest crypto exchanges in the world and that the company will make an effort to live up to its name.

The Future Of The Exchange

Both companies seem to agree on what will be needed for the company’s future. They are focused on improving customer services, trading and user experience, mostly. The companies will also work to prevent the books from having too much volatility and to offer the best possible services for the customers.

Another issue that might concern both parties is that the exchange saw a decline of about 60 to 70 percent in volume this year. While the business is still profitable, this is a considerable amount of money.

Why Has The South Korean Decided To Buy Bitstamp And Why Was The Company Sold?

While Bitstamp received many offers during the years, as it was expected from one of the most high profile crypto companies in Europe, the decision to sell to NXMH was mainly made because the two companies shared a vision of how to run the company. The “quality of the offer” and the “quality of the buyer” also played an important part in the sale, the CEO affirmed.

NXMH was acquired by NXC in 2017 and, by being a part of a huge conglomerate, there is some hope that the company will see more space for growth in the future, which is also one of the reasons why the sale was successful.

Fox NXC, this can represent a door into the European market. Recently another Korean exchange, Bithumb, has attempted to expand into the U. K. markets but it failed because of many issues related to compliance.

This way, Bitstamp can represent an efficient and fast way to enter this new market as it already has many partners in Europe that can act as the shortcuts that NXC might need.