The bankruptcy of Barry Silbert’s Genesis Global may not have pummeled crypto markets like the implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX did, but it features a list of top creditors with similarly large claims topping $3 billion in total.
(Bloomberg) — The bankruptcy of Barry Silbert’s Genesis Global may not have pummeled crypto markets like the implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX did, but it features a list of top creditors with similarly large claims topping $3 billion in total.
Genesis’s Chapter 11 filing on Thursday listed seven creditors owed at least $100 million. By far the biggest one is a $766 million claim related to customers of crypto exchange Gemini, who have money stuck with Genesis’s lending unit. FTX-linked entities have 10 claims of more than $100 million, according to a redacted list filed Saturday.
In all, Genesis owes its top 50 creditors $3.4 billion; for FTX, that figure stands at $3.1 billion. While some of the names of Genesis’ biggest creditors have been redacted in the filing, below is a list of major named ones:
Babel Finance, listed as the third-biggest named Genesis creditor at $150 million, is among crypto firms forced to freeze withdrawals in mid-2022 as a cascade of business failures ripped through the industry. The company, backed by Sequoia Capital China, was forced to restructure after its proprietary trading desk ran up large losses.
Del Wang, the Babel Finance CEO listed as a contact in the Genesis filing, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another top Genesis creditor is Mirana, the investment unit of crypto exchange Bybit, listed as being owed almost $152 million. Mirana’s balance sheet is separate from that of Bybit, according to a spokesperson for Bybit, who added that Mirana’s customer assets are “segregated” and “ring-fenced.”
Genesis also owes $45.9 million to Claure Group LLC, the investment firm of Bolivia-born magnate Marcelo Claure. Claure, the former deputy of SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, is no stranger to troubled companies: He was tasked with cleaning up SoftBank’s perhaps most famous debacle: co-working startup WeWork. Claure didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Parent company Digital Currency Group had been in confidential negotiations with various creditor groups amid a liquidity crunch. Genesis had warned that bankruptcy was possible if it failed to raise cash.
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–With assistance from Anna Irrera.
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