Customers of the Winklevoss Twin’s crypto exchange are short $900 million, which the crypto-broker Genesis is unable to pay back to them, according to a new report in the Financial Times.
Gemini is now attempting to recover its customer’s funds, after the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange FTX hit Genesis hard, forcing it to freeze withdrawals due to a lack of liquidity according to sources familiar with the matter. Genesis reportedly has $175 million in funds locked up in FTX.
As the parent company of Genesis Trading and cryptocurrency asset manager Grayscale, the venture capital company Digital Currency Group owes Genesis’ crypto-lending division $575 million, Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert revealed in a speech to shareholders last month.
Genesis had teamed up with Gemini to offer Gemini’s customers a crypto-lending product which would allow customers keeping funds with Gemini to earn a return on their assets. Now Gemini has put together a creditor’s committee to try and recoup the missing funds from Genesis and DG, its parent company.
In a separate report, Coindesk reported that there are currently $1.8 billion in outstanding loans represented by creditor groups now in negotiation with Genesis, and that is likely to increase significantly as time goes on.
There is a separate group of investors whose loans total $900 million, which is being directly represented by law firm Proskauer Rose.
Genesis is presently exploring different options, including a possible bankruptcy, and has hired investment bank Moelis & Company.