Galaxy Digital, a well-known financial services and investment management company led by billionaire Mike Novogratz, opened trading under The Thicker Glxy on NASDAQ on Friday.
The company's shares opened at $23.50, surpassing $25 at press time, according to CNBC data. The shares rose about 15% from previous trading sessions.
Galaxy has completed its long-standing travel from the Toronto Stock Exchange to Nasdaq via direct listings. Admission to the US open market took 1,320 days and cost more than $25 million, according to CEO Mike Novogratz.
“This is not just a corporate milestone,” Novograts said in a statement Friday. “It's the fulfillment of a deep personal bet that I made over a decade ago that the financial system was postponed for change.”
Galaxy reported a net loss of $295 million in the first quarter during the crypto market recession. Despite the losses, the company's total revenues rose to $12.9 billion, an increase of 38% from the previous quarter.
Speaking about CNBC's Squawk Box on Friday, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz highlighted the strategic importance of US market access, saying the company's visibility in Canada is “one-thirty” of what can be achieved in the US.
Novograts also highlights Galaxy's dual focus on cryptography and artificial intelligence, calling it “the two most exciting growth areas on the market.”
In another interview with Bloomberg, Novograts revealed that Galaxy has discussed plans with the SEC, tokenizing its own stock and potentially other stocks. The company worked with the SEC's Crypto Task Force to explore how to ultimately register stocks and trade on the blockchain.
He said the long-term vision is to make galaxy stocks and ultimately ETFs, bonds and traditional stocks available for use in distributed financial (DEFI) applications such as lending and trading.
Galaxy's NASDAQ list follows the successful debut of Crypto Platform Etoro, with its stock rising 30% on day one.
Other major players like Kraken, Circle and Gemini are also preparing to be exposed in a US regulatory environment where digital assets are favored.
