Famed Lithuanian-Australian poker larrikin Tony Guoga ups the ante at Perth crypto firm Digital X

Poker player and cryptocurrency bull Tony Guoga has emerged as the controlling shareholder in a local Bitcoin play, stationed his daughter as a board director and lined up a deal with a Canadian company he chairs. According to Bloomberg disclosures Antanas Guoga has shored up 19.85 per cent of Digital X, a West Perth-based outfit that holds about $73 million in crypto assets. Market disclosures show Digital X’s new big backer, better-known by his poker moniker Tony G, has spent $9.7m building up a stake in the business since joining as an investor and strategic adviser in late 2024. It marks a somewhat unexpected new arrival for a Perth-founded business that is one of the few listed companies in Australia dabbling in the opaque and fast-moving world of cryptocurrencies. Originally the brainchild of legacy founder Eugeni “Zhenya” Tsvetnenko — who returned to Perth in August after a five-year jail sentence in the US for a multimillion-dollar auto-subscribing phone scheme — Digital X was considered a world-first when it hit the boards as a listed Bitcoin mining operation 2014. Tsvetnenko had exited Digital X in mid-2016 after he was charged by US authorities. Nearly a decade on and one single Bitcoin is valued at more than $165,000, though its place in the world remains a debated topic. Digital X billed Mr Guoga as “an experienced digital asset and blockchain enabler” in revealing he decided to back the firm via a $4.7m private placement and would be joining as a strategic adviser to the business, in December 2024. The placement was priced at 4.7¢ a share and the stock has risen more than 23 per cent since then. On top of a political career in Lithuania and as a successful professional poker player, Mr Guoga is chair of Canadian Stock Exchange-listed Sol Strategies, of which he is the largest shareholder at nearly 20 per cent. The business’ main investment focus is in the crypto sphere honed in on a method known as staking, that purports to generate income from ones holding in Solana tokens outside of price movements alone. It hasn’t taken long for Digital X to crank up its Solana exposure, with the two companies announcing a staking partnership to the CSX and ASX on May 13. “The increased investment in Solana complements our foundational Bitcoin holdings and is designed to actively generate revenue and capture growth,” interim Digital X chief executive Demetrios Christou told The West Australian. “Staking SOL generates a recurring income stream (estimated at 7–9 per cent pa), which supports profitability and can be reinvested into core operations.” About a week after the staking partnership and the Digital X board had been bolstered with the addition of Mr Guoga’s daughter, Ieva Guoga, who has been working with Sol Strategies since late 2024. A familiar face also returned to Digital X as part of the board changes, with ex-chief executive Leigh Travers joining as a chair on May 19. Mr Travers led the business for seven years from 2014 until 2021 and had been in charge of cryptocurrency exchange Binance Australia until March 2023. Amid the board changes Perth-based non-executive chair Toby Hicks and director Davide Bosio have bid Digital X adieu. Recent disclosures also show one of Digital X’s other early backers, and another poker enthusiast William Brindise bought up a substantial slice in the Perth-based company on May 19. Mr Brindise had been chief trading officer at Digital X when it was founded in 2014, and left the business at the end of 2016.