According to Axios, a venture capital firm in Singapore acquired the majority stake in the crypto-focused media company The Block for $70 million.
The transaction’s structuring firm, Foresight Ventures, is investing $60 million to acquire an 80% stake. The Block will continue to operate as an independent company, according to the venture capital (VC) firm.
Partner Tony Cheng will assume board membership, while Foresight CEO Forest Bai will assume the role of chairman. Larry Cermak, the CEO of the media company, is the second-largest shareholder in the organization.
A “new beginning” has been announced by Cermak on X (previously Twitter). Cheng states that the deal’s primary objective will be to assist businesses in attracting more Asian users.
The majority shareholder and former CEO of the defunct exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, provided the block with loans totaling millions of dollars.
This agreement enables The Block to distance itself from the FTX scandal, which surfaced after the revelation of the company’s ties to the exchange.
During the first year, the venture capital firm consented to allocate an undisclosed sum towards advertising for The Block.
After using the majority of the capital to buy the stake McCaffrey had previously held, a change of control clause reportedly received the remaining funds.
Block Temp and Foresight News, both of which cater to Mandarin-speaking audiences, as well as CoinNess, which is published in Korean, are among the Asian crypto media organizations in which Foresight holds investments.
In light of the ongoing bear market, which has caused numerous crypto companies to fire off substantial portions of their workforces, the organization is confident that it can assist The Block in expanding.
A purported 33 percent of The Block’s workforce was laid off in March.