Execs are fleeing Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital as the firm makes a big pivot towards Wall Street

The good ol’ Friday news dump.

Galaxy Digital, the merchant bank run by famed trader Mike Novogratz, announced on Friday evening that two major executives are stepping down from their positions as the firm shifts its focus to larger institutions from small ICOs. But no one noticed. "The Company is adapting to the regulatory framework and the opportunities it is currently seeing, and therefore repositioning its Advisory business from focusing on small ICO advisory and blockchain consulting to instead serve larger, more institutional clients in the space," the firm said. Notably, the firm was known to operate an advisory business as well as one in trading and venture capital. As part of the shift, the firm is shutting its Vancouver office. 

It is not clear why the shift led to a number of major executive departures. Still, The Block reached out to its sources to get a full picture of what's going on. We discovered five execs have the left the firm in recent months:

• Richard Tavoso: Tavoso, who served as president of the firm, has stepped down, according to a person familiar with the matter. "He will continue to serve as a trusted advisor and a member of the Board of Managers of Galaxy Digital Holdings GP LLC. Mr. Tavoso has been instrumental in the formation and launch of Galaxy Digital and the Company looks forward to his continued involvement," the announcement said. Tavoso previously worked at RBC Capital Markets. 
• David Namdar: This exit is especially striking. Namdar, previously co-head of trading, is well-known to be someone who helped to convince Novogratz to direct a massive portion of his family office towards cryptocurrency a few years ago, according to sources. He previously worked at Millennium Partners, UBS, and Goldman Sachs. 
• Michael Maloney: This one wasn't announced Friday. Still, people familiar with the situation told The Block that Maloney, who joined in November 2017, left in September. He was a managing director at the firm leading its advisory business. Maloney did not respond to a message seeking comment.
• Sean Galvin: Galvin, who served as director of finance and tax at Galaxy, left in July, according to his LinkedIn. The trading veteran was previously interim chief financial officer and chief accounting officer at KCG, the market making firm acquired by Virtu Financial in 2017. He's now chief accounting officer at BGC Partners, according to his LinkedIn profile. 
• Jason Raziano: Raziano, who is not as senior as the aforementioned folks, left the company over the summer, according to a source. He was on the venture investment team at Galaxy. Now, Raziano is on the business development team at CoVenture, a pre-seed investor. He previously worked at 14W and Morgan Stanley. 

In July, Bloomberg reported the firm suffered serious losses in the first quarter of 2018. Per the report, the firm’s trading business had $13.5M in realized losses and another $88.5M in paper losses related to crypto. Still, Novogratz was bullish on his firm’s future. 

“We have assembled a world-class team with deep institutional knowledge and expertise and have also made significant strides in scaling our four core business lines,” Novogratz said in a statement at the time of the Bloomberg report. 

As for the exits, Novogratz said: "I would like to thank Richard Tavoso and David Namdar for all of their work and support in helping to launch and build our Company. I look forward to continuing to work with both, Richard as a Director at Galaxy and David, as a key member of the crypto community."

To be sure, the firm has been able to attract talent. A Bloomberg report noted the firm hired Ian Taylor, according to people familiar with the matter. Prior to joining Galaxy, Taylor was Goldman Sachs' head of real estate, lodging and gaming equity capital markets for the Americas, according to his LinkedIn. 

A spokeswoman for Galaxy Digital did not answer a call requesting comment. This post has been updated to include additional exits.