STAMFORD — Digital Currency Group, a leading company in the cryptocurrency and blockchain-technology sectors that recently opened offices in Stamford, announced Monday plans to create more than 300 jobs in Connecticut in the next five years — the latest of several prominent firms to commit this year to hiring on a large scale, with state financial assistance.
To support the new positions, DCG is building an approximately 90,000-square-foot headquarters across the fourth and fifth floors of 290 Harbor Drive, in the Shippan Landing complex. By the end of the summer of 2022, the company is aiming to open the new offices, which have panoramic views of Stamford and Long Island Sound.
Before deciding on Connecticut, DCG considered keeping its headquarters in Manhattan, while it also looked at locations in the other New York City boroughs, Westchester County and New Jersey.
“It was Connecticut where we were welcomed with open arms by Gov. (Ned) Lamont,” DCG founder and CEO Barry Silbert said Monday in a press conference on the fifth floor of 290 Harbor Drive. “It is here where we found a great home for financial-technology companies with the infrastructure, universities, access to capital and diverse pool of talent needed to build a global business.”
If DCG creates and retains more than 300 full-time jobs, it can earn a grant “in arrears” of up to approximately $5 million from the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
“This is a state that was one of the most entrepreneurial states in the country, going back a long time,” Lamont said at the press conference. “Then we lost a little bit of our entrepreneurial mojo, and we are getting it back thanks to entrepreneurs like you.”
Ahead of the completion of the permanent headquarters, DCG opened in the spring a temporary headquarters in the adjacent building at 262 Harbor Drive, where about 130 employees are based. As part of its expansion, DCG plans to hire more than 100 people in Stamford in 2022.
Today, the company employs more than 1,000 people across four continents.
“You are an enormous boost to our growing fintech industry, and thank you for your commitment to Connecticut, to Stamford and the jobs you’re going to be creating,” Stamford Mayor-elect Caroline Simmons said at the press conference. “We really look forward to partnering with you.”
Silbert described DCG as “the largest conglomerate of companies in the fast-growing cryptocurrency and blockchain industry.” Founded in 2015, DCG has invested in more than 200 companies focused on blockchain, a technology that plays a vital role in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
In addition, it owns and operates seven businesses. Several of those subsidiaries are relocating to Connecticut, including:
• Grayscale Investments, which DCG describes as the world’s largest digital currency asset manager, with more than $50 billion in assets under management
• TradeBlock, an institutional trading platform
• DCG Real Estate
• HQ, DCG’s new wealth management business
In addition to the businesses that are moving to Connecticut, DCG also owns and operates CoinDesk, a financial media and data company; Foundry, a specialist in bitcoin mining and staking; and Luno, a cryptocurrency platform.
On Nov. 1, DCG announced new investments that raised its valuation to $10 billion. On Nov. 18, it announced the completion of a debt capital raise that provided a credit facility of up to $600 million.
“We are a $10 billion company at the epicenter of a multitrillion-dollar industry,” Silbert said.
Growing number of companies coming to Connecticut
DCG joins several other major companies that have committed this year to establishing or expanding their presence in southwestern Connecticut.
The company welcomed the prospect of receiving up to $5 million in state funds to support its hiring, but Silbert said the financial assistance was not the dominant factor in its decision to relocate the headquarters.
“Having then spent time with the state (officials) and understanding all the opportunities to collaborate was an important consideration,” Silbert said. “But it was really after the fact, when we had kind of narrowed down the (headquarters) finalists that we understood the opportunity to, I guess, get some money based on hiring.”
Noting that DCG will pay more than $15 million in taxes to the state in 2021, Silbert quipped that “if the governor can turn 5 (million) into 15 (million) in perpetuity, we should do that all day long.”
David Lehman, the state’s economic development commissioner, said the state funds “were our standard incentives, consistent with what we’ve offered other companies. The state is trying to have a very formulaic, straightforward framework.”
Other corporate newcomers to the state include tobacco giant Philip Morris International, which plans to open next summer its new headquarters at 677 Washington Blvd., in downtown Stamford. On Nov. 8, Lamont and other elected officials held a press conference and tour at 677 Washington to welcome PMI executives. PMI is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan.
PMI is not receiving any state funds for its headquarters relocation.
At 100 Washington Blvd., in Stamford’s South End, manufacturer and technology-services company ITT is planning to open its new headquarters by March. Now based in White Plains, N.Y., ITT can earn up to nearly $2 million in grant funding if it creates 57 full-time jobs.
Yards from 100 Washington, Tomo Networks, a financial-technology firm focused on real estate, has opened offices at 2200 Atlantic St. Launched last year, Tomo intends to create up to 100 local jobs by the end of this year.
Like DCG and ITT, Tomo is eligible for state financial assistance, but the amount of its funding has not yet been disclosed.
In downtown Greenwich, financial-technology firm iCapital Network opened offices in September in the Greenwich Plaza complex. It can earn up to $2.94 million in grants from the state if it creates 200 full-time jobs.
“There’s been a growing number of companies relocating to Connecticut,” Silbert said. “We’re excited to support that effort and blaze a path for other fintech and crypto companies to make a similar move.”
pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter: @paulschott
