Similar to most of the influential personalities in the crypto industry, Barry Silbert is also an early investor who has been in the crypto space for over a decade. Silbert is the CEO and Founder of Digital Currency Group (DCG), which is a venture capital company and has five subsidiaries. The well-known crypto news media platform, CoinDesk, Genesis, Grayscale Investments, Foundry, and Luno are a part of the DCG.

Barry Silbert is one of the pioneering investors of Bitcoin, which made him an influential advocate of cryptocurrencies. He invested in numerous crypto projects with DCG, which went on to become successful companies with wide user adoption. If you have never heard of Barry Silbert despite being in this space for a while, you are not alone. This article helps you learn about Barry Silbert and his contributions to expedite crypto adoption in the present article.

Barry Silbert Biography

Education and Early Career of Barry Silbert

Barry Silbert was born and grew up in Gaithersburg, Maryland and his business adventures started in his childhood itself. Silbert was qualified as a stockbroker when he passed the General Securities Representative Exam in his high school.

Silbert was also the youngest person to pass the Series 7 stockbroker exam at 17 years old. He graduated from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance. As soon as he graduated in 1998, he started working as an investment banker at Houlihan Lokey for over 5 years.

Later, he founded SecondMarket (former Restricted Stock Partners), which became successful and was named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in its 2010 convention. As a result, Silbert was listed in “40 under 40 by Fortune Magazine” and also became an “Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009”.

Barry Silbert: CEO of Digital Currency Group

Barry Silbert first heard of Bitcoin in 2012 and started investing in this new-age financial asset. As he learned more and more about cryptocurrencies, he left SecondMarket to focus on the emerging crypto industry in 2013.

Silbert established Grayscale Investments, a digital currency asset management company, in 2013 to help users leverage disruptive technologies like crypto by investing in them. After a couple of years, Barry Silbert established Digital Currency Group in 2015 with the funds he received from the sale of SecondMarket to NASDAQ.

Apart from enabling users to get an exposure to cryptocurrencies with Grayscale Investments, Silbert also started other subsidiary companies under DCG, which strengthened its position in the crypto industry.

CoinDesk

CoinDesk was originally launched by Shakil Khan, Spotify advisor and angel investors to address the lack of transparent information issue in the crypto industry. DCG brought the platform in 2016, being impressed by its fundamentals and use adoption. CoinDesk has continued to be one of the top news websites in the crypto industry.

Genesis

Another subsidiary of DCG, Genesis, is a digital currency-focused trading desk. Being one of the SecondMarket’s trading divisions, it helps institutional investors with secure, discreet buying, selling, borrowing, and lending a large amount of funds. Genesis also provides custody services and screening of KYC and AML requirements to its clients.

Foundry

Foundry is focused on the bitcoin mining industry and its primary objective is to empower miners with advanced tools to build decentralized infrastructure. While being one of North America’s largest Bitcoin miners itself, Foundry’s tasks include financing, acquisition of mining equipment, consultation and advisory services to miners. Silbert believes that digital asset mining and staking is the backbone of blockchain technology.

Luno

Luno is a retail crypto exchange as well as a crypto wallet that has more than 5 million users. The exchange platform operates in more than 40 countries across the globe, processing billions worth of transactions. DCG purchased Luno in 2020 and made the crypto exchange one of its subsidiaries. However, the cost of acquisition was not disclosed. The platform operates independently despite being a subsidiary of DCG.

Personal Life of Barry Silbert

Barry Silbert was married to Lori Silbert and the couple is known to have a daughter. He kept his family details and personal life private and are not revealed on the internet. Silbert is also not an active user of social media platforms. So, no other details about his personal life are known.

Barry Silbert Net Worth

Being a successful entrepreneur in the crypto industry, Barry Silbert amassed a net worth of around $3 billion. Apart from establishing Digital Currency Group, he also invested in popular crypto projects such as Coinbase, Ripple, BitPay, Circle, Chainlink, Square, Tesla, BlockFi, Kraken, and more. His wealth comes from both DCG and the series of his successful investments.

Conclusion

Barry Silbert is the pioneering Bitcoin investor who believed in the potential of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. By entering early into the industry, he established successful companies with DCG and stood as a prominent figure. Unlike other crypto influential people, Silbert is seldom active on social media and is not known to many people in the crypto community. However, his contribution to the adoption and development of crypto is remarkable!

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