Crypto lender Genesis Global Capital filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York early Friday morning, marking the latest business in the industry to file for bankruptcy as the fallout from last year’s collapse in crypto prices continues to ripple through markets. The filing estimates the firm has between $1 billion and $10 billion assets and between $1 billion and $10 billion in liabilities, with more than 100,000 estimated creditors. The Chapter 11 filing is a long time coming for Genesis, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Digital Currency Group (DCG), which took major losses beginning in June of last year and ultimately could no longer operate following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. Started in 2013, Genesis aimed to be the first all-in-one Wall Street prime broker for digital assets. The company launched its over the counter lending business in March of 2018. By the fourth quarter of that year, the lending desk had originated $500 million in loans for the period and $1.1 billion in total. Exactly three years later, at the height of crypto mania, the lending desk’s loan originations exploded to $50 billion for the quarter and $131 billion for all of 2021. By June of last year, that mania had begun unwinding, with crypto’s total market value dropping by more than half in a matter of weeks after major crypto hedge fund — and Genesis borrower — Three Arrows Capital defaulted on $1.2 billion borrowed from Genesis.
Full story : Crypto lender Genesis files for bankruptcy protection.
