Quarterly revenue forecast surges 268 times—how significant is Galaxy Digital in the crypto stock boom?

Author: BUBBLE

The development of cryptocurrency OTC platforms has had two major catalysts: for 2024, the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, along with regions like the EU and Dubai gradually introducing regulatory frameworks (MiCA, VARA) that allow OTC desks to operate legally at scale, enabling institutions to quickly acquire target assets. By 2025, the turning point came after former U.S. President Trump proposed the concept of a "crypto capital," causing traditional finance to make a complete 360-degree shift. Following various new crypto policies, Bitcoin hit new highs in early 2025 and Ethereum surged strongly, fueling an institutional asset allocation boom that drove explosive growth in OTC platform trading volumes.

Typically, OTC trading involves direct matching between buyers and sellers. They offer single-price quotes, eliminating slippage and bid-ask spreads, with transfers completed through custodial wallets or institutional accounts. Since orders never touch public order books, the market never sees your hand. As the "dark pool" of the crypto market, OTC firms do not disclose specific transaction details of their users, but unlike traditional finance, we can trace clues on-chain.

In July 2025, one of the largest Bitcoin OTC trades in history took place—80,000 BTC changed hands for approximately $9 billion—with almost no ripple in the open market. The orchestrator behind this was Galaxy Digital, currently the most favored "crypto OTC firm" on Wall Street, which saw its Q2 revenue surge 268-fold year-on-year.

What role have OTC platforms played amid this wave of compliance? How has Galaxy Digital leveraged its resources to maneuver across crypto and stock markets? BlockBeats conducted an in-depth investigation on this topic.

The Third Pillar of Liquidity in Crypto

Amid this institutional surge, OTC platforms have clearly emerged as the "third pillar of liquidity" in the crypto market, alongside centralized exchanges (CEX) and decentralized exchanges (DEX). For large capital inflows, CEX/DEX cannot absorb hundreds of millions of dollars in buy or sell orders without triggering severe price volatility. Thus, OTC platforms act as the institution's "white glove," executing accumulation or liquidation discreetly behind the scenes.

Throughout 2024, OTC trading volume did not fall below the prior-year level in any single month, indicating growing preference among market participants for private channels over open-market exposure. To them, crypto has evolved from fringe speculation into an acceptable asset class, transforming Wall Street from skeptic to active participant. In 2025, this growth accelerated exponentially.

Finery Markets noted that the shift among traditional finance leaders—from观望 to neutral or accepting—is a key driver behind the OTC volume surge. As more transactions occur in dark pools, surface-level market volatility is significantly smoothed. According to Finery Markets’ Q4 2024 report, overall OTC platform trading volume increased 106% compared to the previous year. In the first half of 2025, OTC spot volume rose 112.6% year-on-year compared to H1 2024.

Notably, while regulatory conditions improve in Europe and the U.S., Asian OTC markets are also rising. Licensed Hong Kong OTC platform OSL, along with emerging platforms in the UAE and Southeast Asia, are attracting global large-order liquidity. Meanwhile, traditional block trading market makers such as Flow Traders are actively participating, using high-frequency and quantitative strategies to provide bilateral pricing for institutional clients in large-scale crypto trades, improving execution efficiency and reducing market impact costs. These factors collectively reinforce OTC’s status as the invisible liquidity pool of the crypto market.

Galaxy Digital Shines Amid the Surge

Among numerous OTC players, Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital stands out as the star of this institutional buying frenzy. Galaxy is both a well-known crypto investment bank and operator of a highly connected OTC business, covering trading, investments, asset management, advisory, and mining. Its clientele includes top-tier players such as public companies and hedge funds. However, its core profit drivers are OTC spot trading and investments. Leveraging the founder’s 20 years of Wall Street experience and the company’s public listing and compliance framework, increasing institutional capital flows into Galaxy, where massive block trades involving mainstream assets like ETH and BTC, as well as popular tokens like SOL and BNB, unfold regularly.

Epic 80,000 BTC Trade Lands Smoothly

The previously mentioned 80,000 BTC OTC trade completed within four days—valued at $9 billion—set one of the largest single transactions in crypto history, with Galaxy Digital acting as the intermediary.

On July 25, Galaxy Digital announced it had facilitated this massive BTC sale on behalf of an early investor from the "Satoshi era." The sale was reportedly part of the investor’s estate planning. Galaxy did not disclose the client’s identity, stating only that the transaction was part of a broader wealth management strategy. Remarkably, the disposal of 80,000 BTC had almost no market impact. On-chain data showed ancient addresses moving BTC into Galaxy Digital’s OTC address starting July 17, completing the transfer over several days. Despite this, Bitcoin’s price remained stable. Although the announcement caused a short-term dip of nearly 4%, briefly breaking below the $115,000 mark, prices rebounded within hours to around $117,300.

Analyst Jason Williams noted the massive sell-off was “fully absorbed” by the market. Another analyst, Joe Consorti, marveled: “80,000 Bitcoins—over $9 billion—sold at market price with BTC barely moving.” This demonstrates not only the depth of today’s OTC market, where counterparties can absorb such large sell orders shortly after exchange matching, but also highlights the importance of “dark pool trading” in today’s crypto landscape. Based on publicly known OTC addresses (bc1q0), Galaxy’s OTC desk handles weekly Bitcoin transactions worth hundreds of millions to billions of dollars, with real volumes likely even higher.

ETH: The Preferred Asset Among Crypto Stock Companies

In Q2 2025, multiple unusually large ETH buy orders appeared on-chain, drawing close community attention. Since July 9, 14 newly created wallet addresses have cumulatively purchased 856,554 ETH—worth about $3.16 billion—via OTC desks such as Galaxy Digital and FalconX. These wallets had no prior on-chain history before suddenly acquiring large amounts of ETH through OTC channels, signaling that “whales are quietly accumulating ETH.”

On-chain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence reported that starting late July, a newly created wallet (0xdf0A…2EF3) bought approximately $300 million worth of ETH via Galaxy Digital’s OTC desk within just three days. The address once held 79,461 ETH at a cost of around $300 million. At the time, the market value was approximately $282.5 million, resulting in a paper loss of about $26 million (an 8.7% drawdown). This indicates the whale bought at relatively high prices but continues to accumulate confidently.

Just today, August 5, three new addresses acquired a total of 63,837 ETH—worth about $236 million—through Galaxy and FalconX. EyeOnChain revealed some buyer addresses, including 0x55CF…679, 0x8C6b…60, and 0x86F9…446. Estimates suggest each of these addresses made purchases ranging from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars, with one wallet holding over 110,000 ETH (market value exceeding $400 million).

Who is behind these purchases? Evidence points to SharpLink Gaming, which since June 2025 has loudly proclaimed its adoption of the MicroStrategy strategy, pledging to continuously accumulate Ethereum as its primary treasury asset. According to its announcements and on-chain data, SharpLink aggressively accumulated nearly 500,000 ETH between June and the end of July via ATM share issuance and OTC trades. By July 27, the company held 438,190 ETH—a 21% increase from a week earlier—and bought over 77,000 ETH that week alone at an average price of ~$3,756.

By the end of July, SharpLink had cumulatively purchased approximately 449,000 ETH. In August, it continued buying the dip: on July 31, it spent $43.09 million to buy 11,259 ETH; on August 4, it purchased another 18,680 ETH from Galaxy. Analysts estimate SharpLink’s total holdings now exceed 499,000 ETH, with an average cost of ~$3,064 and a current market value of ~$1.8 billion, yielding unrealized profits of ~$275 million. Such large-scale ETH accumulation has been executed almost entirely through OTC desks like Galaxy and FalconX. Wintermute’s founder joked, “It’s nearly impossible to buy ETH on our OTC desk now—the whales have already swept up all available supply.” Besides SharpLink, currently the second-largest ETH holder, Bitmine—the largest ETH holder—is also a deep partner of Galaxy.

The associated address 0xCd9 has transferred over $800 million worth of ETH to SharpLink. Multiple addresses, including 0xdf0 and 0x286 (worth ~$300 million), are linked to both parties.

While we cannot trace every large-scale OTC accumulation precisely, this undercurrent is undeniably becoming a key force shaping ETH supply and demand. BlockBeats estimates, based on several of Galaxy’s main on-chain OTC addresses, that Galaxy’s ETH OTC trading volume over the past 90 days has reached $5.444 billion—averaging about $1.8 billion per month.

Based on data from four OTC wallets—0x335, 0x15, 0x46f, and 0xb9c—publicly disclosed by Arkham

Judge and Player: MicroStrategy-Style Play Unfolds on BNB Chain

If BTC and ETH were the stars of 2024, BNB entered the institutional spotlight in the second half of 2025. In July, an unexpected announcement emerged: CEA Industries, a Nasdaq-listed industrial company (ticker VAPE, originally focused on agricultural climate control and e-cigarettes), declared a full transformation into a “BNB treasury company,” planning to raise up to $1.25 billion through private placements and warrant exercises to purchase BNB—sending VAPE’s stock soaring 550% in a single day.

More strikingly, the architect behind VAPE’s crypto pivot is David Namdar, co-founder of Galaxy Digital. He will assume the role of VAPE’s new CEO, while Russell Read, a partner from 10X Capital and former Chief Investment Officer of CalPERS, will serve as CIO. Namdar stated the raised capital—starting at $500 million and expandable to $1.25 billion—will be used over the next 24 months to build a significant BNB position through open market purchases, strategic deals, staking, and decentralized finance yield generation.

This marks BNB’s first large-scale institutional buyer in the public markets, with OTC channels expected to play a crucial role. Given BNB’s highly concentrated issuance and circulation—reportedly 71% controlled by Binance and its founder CZ—absorbing hundreds of millions of dollars in BNB without triggering extreme volatility requires reliance on OTC block trades or private agreements. Galaxy Digital’s extensive OTC network and liquidity resources will provide strong support for what is being called the “BNB version of MicroStrategy.” As the third-largest crypto asset by market cap, this move signals BNB’s formal entry into institutional asset allocation strategies.

Whether it’s Coinbase’s integrated model combining custody, trading, and on-chain ecosystems, Galaxy Digital’s advisory + OTC brokerage for crypto stocks, or the rapid convergence of traditional brokers and crypto platforms, the entire crypto industry is moving toward compliance and consolidation among top players. The recent launch of Crypto Project may be a clear signal of this trend—the era of institutional dominance is approaching, and crypto OTC platforms, these “transparent dark pools,” may occupy an increasingly vital role in the ecosystem going forward.