Barry Silbert

Founder & CEO Digital Currency Group

Last Reviewed: September 24, 2026

Executive Summary

Barry Silbert is the founder and chief executive of Digital Currency Group (DCG), the holding company that describes itself as the enduring investor and operator of the crypto industry, and whose businesses have included Grayscale, Genesis, CoinDesk, Foundry and Luno. He has run DCG since 2015, founded Grayscale in 2013 and returned to it as board chairman in August 2025, and since November 2024 has also led Yuma, a DCG subsidiary built around decentralized AI. His career is unusual in that it has spanned both sides of the asset class he helped create: an early investor in the companies building crypto infrastructure, and the founder of GBTC, the product Grayscale says pioneered regulated access to the digital asset class.

Career Highlights

• Founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group, and a director, since 2015, according to Grayscale’s January 2026 registration statement.
• Founded Grayscale in 2013; its first product, GBTC, launched that year, and it reported about $35 billion in assets under management at 30 September 2025.
• Named chairman of Grayscale’s board in August 2025, having earlier served as a director (2020 to 2023) and as an advisor to the board (2024 to 2025).
• CEO and director of Yuma, a decentralized-AI subsidiary of DCG, since November 2024.
• Founded and led SecondMarket, which was acquired by Nasdaq.

Professional Journey

Silbert graduated with honors from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Before crypto he founded and led SecondMarket, which was later acquired by Nasdaq, and his Milken Institute biography dates his start as a blockchain investor to 2012, when he began backing companies including Coinbase, Circle and Kraken.

In 2013 he founded Grayscale and launched its first product, the vehicle now known as GBTC. His Milken biography calls it the first bitcoin investment vehicle, and Grayscale grew from it into what it describes as the world’s largest digital asset-focused investment platform. His Milken biography says he served as Grayscale’s CEO for eight years before becoming chairman; the company’s own filings record him on its board from February 2020 to December 2023, as an advisor to the board from May 2024 to May 2025, and as chairman from August 2025, when he took over the role from Mark Shifke. Grayscale filed to go public as Grayscale Investments, Inc. in November 2025 with DCG as its controlling shareholder; at the time of this review no final prospectus had been filed.

He formally became chief executive of DCG in 2015. The group describes itself as having made more than 200 equity investments and more than 50 fund investments, operating in over 25 countries, and owning businesses across institutional services, asset management, media, mining infrastructure and consumer wallets. In November 2024 he added the role of CEO of Yuma, a DCG subsidiary focused on decentralized AI.

The period since 2022 has also been the most contested of his career. Genesis, a lending business then owned by DCG, filed for bankruptcy in January 2023, and Grayscale’s registration statement discloses that DCG and Silbert have since been subject to lawsuits, regulatory inquiries and investigations relating to it, including charges brought by the New York Attorney General in 2023, and suits filed in 2025 by the committee pursuing claims on behalf of the reorganised Genesis entities. In January 2025 DCG itself agreed to a cease-and-desist order and a $38 million civil penalty to settle SEC allegations about statements concerning Genesis Capital’s financial condition. The filing describes these as proceedings and allegations; it does not record an outcome against him personally.

Education

Emory University, Goizueta Business School

Business degree, graduated with honors