Novogratz's Galaxy Digital Hires Former Goldman Banker Taylor

(Bloomberg) -- Mike Novogratz’s merchant bank, Galaxy Digital, has hired former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker Ian Taylor, according to people familiar with the matter.

Taylor will join the firm before year-end and oversee the advisory-services arm, known as Galaxy Digital Advisors LLC, said one of the people, who requested anonymity because the information isn’t yet public. The unit advises clients in the blockchain industry, and its services include token raises, debt and equity private placements, mergers, and restructurings, according to its website.

A spokesman for Galaxy Digital declined to comment.

Taylor was most recently Goldman’s head of real estate, lodging and gaming equity capital markets for the Americas, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Novogratz, a billionaire and former Goldman partner, previously said he was trying to create the Goldman Sachs of crypto, but in June refreshed his vision. Now he wants to become the Drexel Burnham Lambert of the industry.

“If you think about what Mike Milken and his guys did, they helped credentialize junk bonds, high yield as an asset class,” Novogratz said in June. “They were the proselytizers, the traders, the bankers.”

Galaxy was among investors in Bitfury, which raised $80 million in an offering that valued the crypto venture at more than $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gillian Tan in New York at gtan129@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Goldstein at agoldstein5@bloomberg.net, Steve Dickson, Dan Reichl

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