Who he is
Barry Silbert is one of the first big Bitcoin investors and the builder of one of the sector's most extensive corporate empires. A former investment banker, he founded SecondMarket (sold to Nasdaq) before betting everything on digital currencies: in 2015 he created Digital Currency Group (DCG), a holding company that has invested in more than 250 companies across more than 40 countries and which controls Grayscale (manager of crypto ETFs and trusts), Foundry (mining), Luno (exchange) and Yuma (decentralised AI). Silbert's arc also includes, however, the heaviest chapter of the 2022-2023 crypto credit crunch: the failure of lending subsidiary Genesis, from which stem lawsuits and multi-million dollar settlements that follow him to this day.
Current role
Founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (Stamford, Connecticut). Since November 2024 he has also been CEO of Yuma, the DCG subsidiary dedicated to decentralised artificial intelligence built on the Bittensor ecosystem. In August 2025 he returned as chairman of Grayscale Investments after a change at the top of the company. (Verified: September 2026)
Career path
- 2004-2015 — SecondMarket: founder and CEO of the platform for unlisted securities, acquired by Nasdaq.
- 2012-2015 — Bitcoin pioneer: among the sector's first serial investors, then founder of Grayscale and Genesis.
- 2015-today — DCG: the holding company grows to control Grayscale, Foundry, Luno, CoinDesk (sold in 2023) and, from 2024, Yuma.
Recent developments and controversies
- Genesis bankruptcy (January 2023): DCG's lending subsidiary went into Chapter 11 after the collapses of Three Arrows Capital and FTX. Outcome: bankruptcy plan executed; in 2024 Genesis also agreed with the New York attorney general's office a 2 billion dollar settlement for Earn customers.
- Settlement with the SEC (January 2025): DCG paid 38.5 million dollars to settle the charge of having misled investors about Genesis's health after the roughly 1 billion dollar hole of 2022. Outcome: settlement concluded. (Verified: September 2026)
- Cases still open: the civil suit by the New York attorney general against DCG and Silbert continues (in April 2025 the judge rejected almost all of the motion to dismiss); in 2025 the post-bankruptcy Genesis itself sued DCG and Silbert to recover billions, and in February 2026 a federal judge allowed a class action against DCG to proceed. No conviction to date: proceedings ongoing. (Verified: September 2026)
FAQ
Is Barry Silbert still CEO of Digital Currency Group? Yes: he has led DCG since its founding (2015) and since late 2024 he has also been CEO of subsidiary Yuma, dedicated to decentralised AI. (Verified: September 2026)
Was Silbert convicted over the collapse of Genesis? No. DCG settled with the SEC (38.5 million dollars, January 2025) with no admission of guilt, while the civil suits from New York and from Genesis against him and DCG are still ongoing as of September 2026.
See also
Verified sources
- https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/17/crypto-firm-dcg-to-pay-sec-38point5-million-for-misleading
- https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/04/11/judge-rules-against-most-of-dcg-s-motion-to-dis
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Currency_Group
- https://www.crunchbase.com/person/barry-silbert
