Genesis Finalizes Restructuring Plan, Initiates Repayments

Bankrupt crypto lender Genesis Global Capital has now completed its restructuring process and began debt repayment to creditors. This development comes amidst reports of Genesis making large-scale network transactions in the last day.

Genesis Moves $1.5 Billion Bitcoin And Ethereum For Debt Repayment

According to a Bloomberg report on Friday, Genesis and all associated companies have now announced the complete restructure of the crypto lending firm following its declaration of bankruptcy three years ago. 

Genesis first announced a repayment plan in November 2023 which encountered much opposition from Genesis’s parent company – Digital Currency Group (DCG) – who rejected the idea of paying creditors a minimum of 77% of their deposits at the time of bankruptcy. DCG believed that such a measure would result in investors gaining more than was initially owed considering the rise in the valuation of crypto assets over the last year. 

However, in May 2024, Genesis secured approval from US Judge Sean Lane of the Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York, to finally initially implement its proposed repayment plan. Based on Bloomberg’s report, the crypto lender aims to disburse $4 billion in cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies as repayment to creditors. 

In achieving this goal, all creditors owed Bitcoin are liable to receive only 51.28% of their claims in-kind. Meanwhile, all Ethereum and Solana creditors will be paid 65.87% and 29.58% of their claims in kind, respectively. In addition, all creditors receiving stablecoins or cash will receive 100% of their claims in US Dollars. 

Notably, Genesis already executed multiple transactions on Friday, likely in the appropriation of the company’s repayment plan. According to a report from Arkham Intelligence, the default crypto lender transferred out a total of $1.5 billion in 16,600 BTC ($1.1B), and 166,300 ETH ($521.1 million). 

BREAKING: GENESIS MOVING $1.5B BTC + ETH FOR CREDITOR REPAYMENTS

Wallets linked with Genesis Trading have moved 16.6K BTC ($1.1B) and 166.3K ETH ($521.1M) in the past hour – likely for in-kind repayments to creditors.

BTC: bc1qmetf6pu6ghr6fv92209sw5x9t5999562t8wmux
ETH:… pic.twitter.com/5Jtxqx8mxT

— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) August 2, 2024

Market Reacts To Genesis Debt Repayments

Historically, large repayments by defunct crypto companies result in market sell-offs due to fears of the tendency of recompensated victims to quickly liquidate their newly received assets.  Interestingly, Genesis commenced its repayment plan barely a month after defunct exchange Mt. Gox began settling creditors.

So far, the crypto market has shown a similar reaction with the total crypto market cap declining by 5.52% in the past day to hit a valuation of $2.18 trillion. According to data from CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin has now experienced a 5.19% decrease in price, causing the asset to trade as low as $60,100. Meanwhile, other major assets such as Ethereum and Solana are also in the red zone with losses of 6.11% and 7.12%, respectively.

 Featured image from Investopedia, chart from Tradingview.com