Galaxy Digital to be officially listed on Nasdaq, announces first quarter loss of nearly 300 million US dollars

Galaxy Digital, a crypto investment company already listed in Canada, will officially list on the NASDAQ stock exchange with the ticker "GLXY" on 5/16. Galaxy Digital also announced its first-quarter financial situation, reporting a net loss of $295 million due to the decline in the crypto market during the first quarter. As of March 31, its digital asset exposure was $908 million, a 37% decrease from the fourth quarter. Led by Mike Novogratz, Galaxy Digital, which has been listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) since 2015, has moved its registration from the Cayman Islands to Delaware and applied for listing on the NASDAQ. CEO Mike Novogratz will retain nearly 60% of voting rights and continue to control the company. The company's first-quarter net loss of $295 million starkly contrasts with the net income of $118 million in the previous quarter. The loss was primarily due to the decline in digital asset prices, which affected trading activities and valuations, and a $57 million impairment and disposal cost related to the closure of its Helios data center mining business. Galaxy expects to generate data center lease income in the first half of 2026, providing key IT capacity to CoreWeave under the first phase of the lease agreement. With nearly $7 billion in assets under management, Galaxy generated $21.6 million in adjusted gross profit in the first quarter, an 8% decrease mainly due to falling digital asset prices and reduced on-chain activity. As of March 31, Galaxy Digital's net digital asset exposure was $908 million, a 37% decrease from the fourth quarter. This includes direct holdings of cryptocurrencies, tokens wrapped in Bitcoin and Ethereum, investments in Bitcoin futures ETFs and Bitcoin funds, $19.6 million in SOL, $21.7 million in TIA, $53.9 million in SOL and $17.4 million in AVAX through the Galaxy Crypto Vol Fund, and equity in companies like Ripple Labs. Global asset management giant VanEck has announced the launch of its first "Real World Asset (RWA)" fund, VBILL, targeting U.S. Treasury bonds and supporting four major blockchains. This marks the entry of traditional financial institutions into on-chain assets, symbolizing the deep integration of traditional finance and blockchain and signaling a new wave of asset tokenization.

VBILL will first be deployed on four mainstream blockchains: Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, and Avalanche, allowing investors to obtain the same asset exposure and rights as traditional US Treasury bonds.

It is worth noting that the fund threshold differs: the minimum investment amount on Avalanche, BNB Chain, and Solana is $100,000, while on Ethereum it is raised to $1 million, clearly targeting high-net-worth institutional investors.

Direct Confrontation with BlackRock and Franklin Templeton: RWA Competition Heats Up

The launch of VBILL marks VanEck's direct challenge to BlackRock's BUIDL and Franklin Templeton's BENJI, competing for the on-chain government bond fund market. Earlier this year, asset management giant Apollo also launched a tokenized fund for private credit, indicating that traditional capital markets are moving assets on-chain.

Data from RWA.xyz shows that the largest tokenized asset class globally is private credit, followed by US Treasury bonds, with a market value of $6.9 billion. VanEck's choice of US bonds as its entry point targets assets that are "highly liquid" and have "stable demand".

Blockchain Technology Empowerment: Tokenization Accelerates Asset Market Innovation

The biggest advantage of RWA is transforming traditionally low-liquidity investment options into digital tokens that can be traded instantly on-chain. Compared to traditional settlement processes that take days, on-chain transfers only take seconds to minutes, saving time and significantly reducing operational costs.

(From Document Crisis to Everything On-Chain: Why Blockchain is the Inevitable Path for Digital Transformation of Capital Markets?)

Securitize, VanEck's partner this time, is one of the leaders in this field, having successfully tokenized over $3.9 billion in assets. This year, the platform has received strategic investments of $47 million led by BlackRock and from Jump Crypto, demonstrating traditional finance's high recognition of its technology and business model.

SEC Chair Endorses: RWA Will Be a Turning Point for Financial Market Digitization

A few days ago, at the SEC's roundtable meeting, Chairman Paul Atkins stated that the emergence of RWA is like the revolution of the music industry from analog to digital:

Blockchain technology can open up new ways of issuing, trading, and holding securities, which is not just a system optimization but could potentially create entirely new market activities.

He added, "Most existing regulatory frameworks are still based on past market structures. Facing new models of on-chain assets and smart contracts, the SEC must rethink the balance between supervision and innovation."

(Securitization Scale Reaches $22.6 Billion! SEC Chair Atkins: BlackRock and Franklin Templeton Have Already Laid Out Plans, Regulatory Laws Need to Keep Up)

The Golden Age of RWA Has Quietly Begun

From VanEck to BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, first-tier asset management institutions are heavily betting on the RWA field. With technological maturity and a changing regulatory attitude, future mainstream on-chain assets may not be limited to bonds but could include real estate or art investments.

As the on-chain asset ecosystem gradually takes shape, RWA is no longer just an experimental ground in the crypto realm but has become a key engine for the digital transformation of the global financial system.