Crypto lender Nexo reportedly provided to purchase rival BlockFi for $850M in July

Cryptocurrency lender Nexo had proposed to amass rival BlockFi for about $850M in July, when the latter was struggling to remain afloat within the face of an industry-wide downturn, The Block reported Thursday, citing an funding proposal doc.

BlockFi was mentioned to have turned down Nexo’s provide and moved ahead to be bailed out by FTX US, which filed for Chapter 11 final week. FTX US’s provide was price some $680M however the deal by no means went by. Observe that BlockFi suffered deep losses in the course of the summer time given its publicity to bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.

The Nexo deal included $30M for the acquisition of 51% of BlockFi, $30M for BlockFi’s present stakeholders upon the S1 registration of its yield product, and a $500M credit score line to deal with the corporate’s liquidity difficulty, The Block famous. It was “a greater various to the FTX proposal,” Nexo co-founder Antoni Trenchev advised The Block, “however BlockFi’s administration selected to go along with FTX.” The remaining 49% stake was price about $288M.

The troubled lender’s downfall has accelerated for the reason that summer time given its deep ties to Alameda Analysis, a buying and selling agency that was a part of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire that lately fell aside. Actually, “Alameda was BlockFi’s largest debtor,” Trenchev added. BlockFi was then compelled to pause buyer withdrawals final week and extra lately eyed chapter safety.

Neither BlockFi nor Nexo instantly responded to Looking for Alpha’s request for remark.

Beforehand, (June 21) BlockFi secured a $250M credit score line from FTX.