Six bankruptcies in three months. Cryptocurrency exchanges, lenders, small and large digital asset banks. All somehow dragged towards the abyss by the collapse of Ftx, the former world number two of bitcoin trading and its sister companies. Genesis Global is the latest addition to the list. Yesterday he filed for bankruptcy in the United States announcing the use of ‘Chapter 11’, assisted bankruptcy, for a hole of 3.4 billion dollars against 50 major creditors. All companies working in the sector.
Genesis was a sort of investment bank of the crypto world. Founded in 2013, it was considered one of the most solid companies in the sector. For the Financial Times it was “the largest counter for professional investors in the cryptocurrency market”. For Fortune «the Goldman Sachs of digital assets». Nothing exaggerated, then. But among its biggest debtors was Alamenda Research, the hedge fund of Sam Bankman-Fried, head of FTX in prison for fraudulent bankruptcy because he was held responsible for a 30 billion crash that devastated the sector. And FTX’s long wave isn’t over yet.
Genesis’ client list includes several leading companies in the industry. Gemini is perhaps the best known. Perhaps, more than for the name, for being founded by the twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, famous for having dragged Mark Zuckerberg to court, accused of stealing their idea of Facebook. Lost cause. How they risk losing the billion dollar credit they have against Genesis.
The years of crypto’s transformation from nerdy underworld to white-collar Wall Street leave no winners. Except for Bitcoin, which has gained 12% in the last seven days, returning to $21,500. The maximum for three months. Just as the entire crypto sector returns to touch the one trillion capitalization. A sign that Bitcoin has little to do with these companies. It is a tool, perhaps used as a decoy, but without taking into account the use made of it. At least for now