NYDIG acquires British bitcoin startup Bottlepay in $300 million stock purchase
NYDIG has acquired a British payments startup focused on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. The crypto custody and investment firm is paying for the deal in shares worth around $300 million.
NYDIG, the New York-based crypto company, has acquired British payments startup Bottlepay, according to people familiar with the matter.
NYDIG will pay for the company in shares, and the deal is worth between $280 to 300 million (equivalent to 3% of NYDIG’s shares). The acquisition closed earlier this week.
British billionaire Alan Howard is Bottlepay’s largest shareholder. He led an £11 million investment in Bottlepay in February 2021, alongside NYDIG and FinTech Collective, the venture capital firm. That round valued the company at £51 million.
Howard seeded Bottlepay together with Chris Tuohy, a director and investor in the startup who was formerly considered a “star trader” at Tudor Investment Corporation, the investment firm founded by billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones.
NYDIG helps institutions expand into crypto with a range of custody and trading tools. The company has raised $300 million across two rounds this year alone from investors including Morgan Stanley, New York Life, and Soros Fund Management. Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Wells Fargo have all partnered with the business in order to roll out bitcoin investment products of their own for clients.
In April, NYDIG acquired Arctos Capital, a commercial lender providing financial products to bitcoin holders, investors, and miners. Earlier in the year, it acquired Digital Assets Data, an analytics firm.
Howard, the former CEO of the hedge fund Brevan Howard, has made a large number of bets on crypto infrastructure startups this year. His investments include the crypto custodians Copper and Komainu; CoinShares, the asset manager; and the crypto lender Ledn.
