The founder of the Bitstamp cryptocurrency exchange, Neitz Kodrich, went to court after the new owners tried to buy out his remaining share on previously agreed terms, writes The Block. Codrich filed a lawsuit in the UK High Court on August 12, after Bitstamp Holdings NV exercised an option to buy shares on July 21. According to its terms, the founder must cede his share for $13.46 million, but this amount is "significantly less than the current value of the shares," the lawsuit says.
In October 2018, Codrich sold two-thirds of Bitstamp shares to the Belgian investment firm NXMH, which is a division of the South Korean NXC Corporation. At the same time, he retained a 9.8% stake and the post of general director. As part of the deal, Codrich and the new owner of Bitstamp entered into option agreements that allowed both parties to initiate the sale of the remaining shares of Codrich at certain periods in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
In May 2019, Codrich, along with NXMH-appointed manager Hendrik Gies, visited New York to try to attract financing from investment banks at a valuation of $1 billion. Even then, he began to fear that NXMH would try to buy back his remaining shares relatively cheaply. His fears were confirmed when in December 2019, at a meeting of the board of directors, it was announced that Bitstamp intends to enter an IPO at the same valuation of $1 billion over the next three years. Kodrich claims that he turned to NXMH for guarantees that it will not exercise the option, and he, in turn, will support the plan to enter the IPO. According to him, such guarantees were provided to him "in clear and unambiguous terms."
In September 2019, even before the IPO was announced, NXMH informed Codrich that he would soon have to resign as CEO, since he did not have experience managing a larger company, which was becoming Bitstamp. Instead, he was offered to move to the role of chairman, and Codrich, as he himself claims, was interested. In the future, relations between them continued to deteriorate. According to the lawsuit, in November 2019, the representative of the board of directors, Jamie Hong, "in fact, seized a two-day strategy seminar on the future of the company, organized for the management of Bitstamp."
"It was extremely counterproductive. Mr. Hong took a hostile and overbearing approach that alienated Mr. Codrich and the rest of Bitstamp's management, " the document says.
On the second day of the seminar, Codrich asked to be relieved of his position as CEO, but Hong refused him this. In May 2020, Hong informed Codrich that NXMH also did not want to see him as chairman.
In July, NXMH tried to exercise an option to buy the remaining shares of Codrich at a price of $938 per unit, for a total of $13.46 million.
"This is significantly lower than their current value, calculated based on the real value of Bitstamp, and even lower than the potential future value, both in general and in the case of a successful IPO," the document says.
Codrich calls the option invalid and unenforceable and asks the court to prevent the forced transfer of NXMH shares.