SecondMarket Financial

SecondMarket sourced supply from early employees, founders, and angel investors in venture-backed companies who held restricted stock and needed liquidity before an IPO. It matched those sellers with institutional buyers — family offices, hedge funds, and sovereign wealth funds — through an electronic marketplace. The firm also developed relationships directly with venture-backed issuers who authorized secondary sales on the platform.

SecondMarket launched a Bitcoin Investment Trust in 2013, which became one of the earliest regulated vehicles for institutional Bitcoin exposure. When Nasdaq acquired the core SecondMarket business in 2015, Barry Silbert retained all cryptocurrency-related assets. Those holdings became the foundation of Digital Currency Group, now one of the largest crypto conglomerates globally, owning Grayscale, Foundry, and Genesis.

SecondMarket operated as a registered broker-dealer and Alternative Trading System — a marketplace, not an investment fund. Revenue came from transaction fees on matched trades rather than management fees. This structure meant the firm did not hold or manage investor capital; it earned fees by providing regulatory infrastructure, pricing, and counterparty matching for secondary transactions in illiquid assets.