As it has come to light, Said Gutseriev sold his shares in Capital.com and Currency.com to Viktor Prokopenya, a tech entrepreneur and the founder of VP Capital. In a separate transaction, FTX acquired Said Gutseriev’s share in Zubr.io.
The involved parties have confirmed these transactions already.
“Currency.com and Capital.com are among the industry pioneers in regulated digital currency exchanges and investing software. And we gratefully acknowledge the help of VP Capital to foster the growth of our joint projects,” says Eldar Vagapov, the managing partner of Larnabel Ventures.
Gutseriev’s spokesman also stated that despite the termination of these three cryptocurrency initiatives, Said is still interested in the sector and believes in its potential.
“We commend each of our company partners for several years of productive collaboration that have enabled us to solidify the top management positions of the companies we invest in while attaining remarkable outcomes,” says Viktor Prokopenya. He also added that the company intends to make further investments in cryptocurrency-related ventures in the coming years.
Editor’s Note
VP Capital is a global investment company focused on the technology sector. It was founded by Viktor Prokopenya in 2012. The company is currently based in London. The interests area lies in fintech, blockchain, and artificial intelligence.
Larnabel Ventures is an investment fund of billionaire Said Gutseriev that was founded in 2016. The company supports investments in retail, real estate, finance, and consumer technology.
FTX is a cryptocurrency exchange and crypto hedge fund. It was founded in 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang. Supports spot market, derivatives, and securities trading.
The Background of Currency.com and Capital.com Deal
In July 2017, Said Gutseriev started to actively invest in cryptocurrency and blockchain projects.
Capital.com became the first one. It’s an artificial intelligence-based fintech platform founded by technology entrepreneur Viktor Prokopenya in 2016. In 2017, Capital.com received $25 million in investment from Gutseriev and Prokopenya on a parity basis.
In 2019, technology developed by Capital.com was used to launch Currency.com, Europe’s first regulated exchange-traded cryptocurrency trading platform. It has legal entities in Gibraltar, Great Britain, and Belarus.
Currency.com was fully developed and founded by the team of Viktor Prokopenya. Said Gutseriev became a co-investor. According to some reports, businessmen invested $10 million on the same parity basis as in the case of Capital.com.
The projects grew rapidly and received a lot of attention from international investors. When it became possible to maximise the profit from their sale, Said Gutseriev decided to leave the cryptocurrency business.
Since the start of 2020, Said Gutseriev’s fund has begun negotiations with VP Capital as a potential buyer of Capital.com and Currency.com. They have reached agreements and in the summer of 2020, the pertinent filings were submitted to the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC), the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), and other regulatory bodies.
It took almost a year to process and receive the necessary documents from the regulators for the deal.
It should be noted that with the sale of the crypto exchanges, there is no longer any active business cooperation between Said Gutseriev (Larnabel Ventures) and Viktor Prokopenya (VP Capital).