CoinMarketCap, on behalf of Binance Capital, contacted the administration of the CoinDesk news site to discuss options for a possible acquisition, Blockworks sources say.

CoinMarketСap has been appointed by Binance parent company to act as an authorized person to conclude a media acquisition agreement.

A source told Blockworks that Binance Capital was actively negotiating the acquisition of CoinDesk throughout February, but initial discussions were cut short due to fears that the reporter team would leave en masse if Binance bought them out. Therefore, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange moved to an alternative option to complete a possible deal.

For his part, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao confirmed on Twitter that the cryptocurrency exchange is not planning a direct acquisition of CoinDesk due to what he said is a geographical mismatch.

Binance has owned the CoinMarketCap crypto statistics site since 2020, but formally seeks to demonstrate to the crypto community that CoinMarketCap operates as an independent and independent legal entity, and there is no direct connection between them and the exchange.

Digital Currency Group (DCG), the owner of the news portal, values ​​its CoinDesk at between $200 million and $300 million, but in fact, according to Blockworks, DCG’s ambitions could be much lower, at $75 million. In 2016, DCG bought the ownership of the news site. CoinDesk for only $500,000.

According to The Wall Street Journal, CoinDesk management has entered into an agreement for the provision of consulting services with Lazard specialists. The company specializes in mergers, sales, restructuring and business strategy.