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Among one of the most significant firms entangled in the FTX collapse is the Digital Currency Group, whose subsidiaries include Genesis, Grayscale, CoinDesk, Foundry, and other companies. Genesis, in particular, is under the spotlight because, as an institutional lender, they may have extended capital to entities embroiled with the FTX/Alameda collapse. Genesis has at least $175M stuck on FTX, and also had large exposure including unsecured loans to Three Arrows Capital (3AC) before it collapsed in June. On November 16th, Genesis halted withdrawals and new loan originations following FTX's fall... Genesis connects institutional investors to digital asset markets allowing them to trade, borrow, hedge and more. Genesis is heavily used throughout the industry, including by centralized exchanges like Gemini for their "earn" program which allows customers to earn yield off of their holdings. Last week, Gemini Earn halted withdrawals after Genesis halted withdrawals... Also, Genesis's lending arm, which is widely integrated into various services that offer yield on crypto, may have been affected by offering loans that FTX or Alameda will not repay. DCG has been allegedly looking to raise capital, up to $1B, with little interest from investors balking at a previously undisclosed $1.1B loan from DCG to Genesis, with Grayscale being the only assets receiving any meaningful interest.

Digital Currency Group is reportedly facing another probe into its financial dealings with subsidiary Genesis Global Capital - this time by New York state's top law enforcement officer. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and the Securities and Exchange Commission are already conducting investigations and seeking interviews with potential witnesses at Genesis and its parent company, DCG. Genesis suffered heavy losses last year during the crypto market downturn, primarily after the collapse of digital-assets hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and crypto exchange FTX.

Digital Currency Group is reportedly facing another probe into its financial dealings with subsidiary Genesis Global Capital - this time by New York state's top law enforcement officer. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and the Securities and Exchange Commission are already conducting investigations and seeking interviews with potential witnesses at Genesis and its parent company, DCG. Genesis suffered heavy losses last year during the crypto market downturn, primarily after the collapse of digital-assets hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and crypto exchange FTX.

Genesis Global Capital, the cryptocurrency lending unit of Digital Currency Group (DCG), is reportedly laying the groundwork for a bankruptcy filing as soon as this week. It has been in confidential negotiations with various creditor groups amid a liquidity crunch, and has warned that it may need to file for bankruptcy if it fails to raise cash. Genesis suspended withdrawals in November, soon after crypto exchange FTX - where Genesis held some of its funds - filed for bankruptcy.

Digital Currency Group (DCG) owned Genesis Global Holdco LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Genesis owes over $3.5 billion to its top 50 creditors, including crypto exchange Gemini. The bankruptcy could have broader implications because DCG also owns digital assets manager Grayscale, which operates the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which has $10 billion-plus in assets under management. There would be serious crypto market  repercussions if the Genesis bankruptcy somehow leads to the liquidation of 600,000+ bitcoin holdings.

Genesis Global Capital, the lending arm of crypto investment bank Genesis Global Trading, is temporarily suspending redemptions and new loan originations in the wake of FTX's collapse. The unit serves an institutional client base and had $2.8 billion in total active loans as of the end of the third quarter of 2022. This decision impacts the lending business at Genesis and does not affect Genesis's trading or custody businesses.

Genesis Global Capital, the lending arm of institutional OTC crypto trading firm Genesis Global Trading, added $746 million of crypto loans in the second quarter, bringing its total originations to $2.3 billion since launching the business in March 2018.

"After almost three rocky weeks for the Fei Protocol, the total value held by genesis participants has decreased significantly. What is important is that the distribution has stabilized relative to wallet size, so there are not as many clear outliers as during Fei genesis."

Digital-asset brokerage Genesis is struggling to raise fresh cash for its lending unit, and it's warning potential investors that it may need to file for bankruptcy if its efforts fail. The rush for funding was precipitated by a liquidity crunch at the lender after the sudden collapse of FTX, Genesis halted redemptions shortly after revealing on November 10 that it had $175 million locked in an FTX trading account.

"The troubled brokerage Genesis Global has $2.8 billion in outstanding loans on its balance sheet, with about 30% of its lending made to related parties including its parent company, Barry Silbert's Digital Currency Group, according to people familiar with the matter."

Genesis Global Capital wrote $425 million of crypto loans in the first quarter, bringing its total originations since the business launched in March 2018 to $1.53 billion.

Fei Labs concluded a successful genesis launch of its Fei "non-pegged" stablecoin, raising nearly $1.3 billion in Ethereum from over 17,000 contributors. Stablecoins are typically pegged to a fiat currency, usually the U.S. dollar. However, the values of non-pegged stablecoins float and change over time. They aim to have low short term volatility, while allowing their values to change according to their own demand and the demand for the underlying crypto-assets, over the long term. Ampleforth (launched in June 2019) was one of the first, being followed by Float (February 5, 2021), Rai (February 17), and now Fei.

"Digital Currency Group has informed its shareholders the firm is suspending dividends until further notice. "In response to the current market environment, DCG has been focused on strengthening our balance sheet by reducing operating expenses and preserving liquidity. As such, we have made the decision to suspend DCG's quarterly dividend distribution until further notice," DCG said in a letter to shareholders sent on Tuesday."

FEI is a reserve-backed stablecoin that works through a direct incentive method, in which FEI can give users bonuses or charge fees for making trades that help it maintain its dollar peg. Users can buy FEI from the protocol, and the protocol takes those assets in reserve. The asset traded belongs to the Fei protocol after the trade. The assets in reserve could even be under-collateralized, and the assets would be deployed elsewhere, such as on the secondary market or - later - in yield-generating projects. Fei's "genesis launch" is set for March 22, when users will be able to post ETH to get FEI tokens. Early participants in the sale and in the protocol's liquidity pools on DeFi exchange Uniswap will be incentivized with TRIBE, the project's governance token.

Genesis, Coinbase and BitGo, three of the largest digital asset platforms, have moved into the crypto prime brokerage space, as the importance of the function to attract institutional investors becomes abundantly clear. The combination of lending, custody, trading services and settlement agency services - among others - is crucial for institutional investors who do not want to deal with the current complexities of the digital asset market in its current form.

The genesis block of the Ethereum 2.0 beacon chain went live on December 1. The repeatedly delayed scalability and security Ethereum upgrade suffered no hiccups and immediately reached the required stake participation rate to finalize the blockchain. The biggest change is the introduction of a proof-of-stake consensus to the network, which has previously been purely based on proof-of-work consensus. The next step is creating shard chains, ideally in 2021, which theoretically allow the blockchain to handle many more transactions per second than proof-of-work Ethereum, which often struggles with congestion.

Quote of the day from Noelle Acheson, Head of Market Insights at Genesis Trading: "digital money is great except for when they decide to switch it off for a while", as M-Pesa shuts down for four hours for scheduled maintenance! Systemically important payment systems must have offline rails!

OXT Research has taken steps to confirm Grayscale's self-reported Bitcoin (BTC) holdings that back its GBTC closed-end fund, based on public data and blockchain forensics. It confirmed that the approximate balance of 633,000 BTC held was held at Coinbase Custody, to conclude that Grayscale's self-reporting is credible. OXT Research speculates that Grayscale might not want to disclose their addresses is that they want to avoid providing information about who their most used counterparties are, which could be its parent (DCG) and Genesis Trading, which is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the United Nations Climate Change Global Innovation Hub presented the results of their Genesis 2.0 initiative. The project aims to explore the use of blockchain, smart contracts and the Internet of Things (IoT) for a global environment cause. The project resulted in two prototypes of tokenized green bonds, developed by two separate international teams, which are "de facto verified carbon credits" recognized by either international, national or other verification mechanisms.