Crypto edges higher as Genesis/Gemini doubts continue to circle

© Reuters

By Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com -- Cryptocurrency prices ground out modest gains on Monday but doubts about the fate of trading platform Genesis continued to weigh on sentiment, after reports at the weekend indicating the scale of its problems.

By 10:45 ET (15:45 GMT), Bitcoin was just holding above $17,000, having touched a three-week high of $17,420 in overnight trading. The move was helped by a broad advance in risk assets due to more news that suggested China will move away from its Zero-COVID policy that has hobbled its economy all through the year.

The Financial Times reported at the weekend that Genesis owed customers of the Gemini digital asset platform some $900 million, although that figure looks less alarming when set aside some $1.1B that it is owed by its parent company, the Digital Currency Group owned by Barry Silbert. According to the FT, talks are ongoing between Genesis and DCG over how to resolve the issue of intra-company loans.

According to the FT, DCG has total debts of $2B, of which $1.7B is owed to Genesis. In addition to $1.1B in liabilities that DCG assumed to cover Genesis' exposure to collapsed hedge fund 3 Arrows Capital, DCG has also borrowed $575M "on an arm's length" basis to fund share DCG's share buybacks, among other things.

Genesis, which suspended customer withdrawals in mid-November days after being wrong-footed by the collapse of FTX, was the main partner of the 'Earn' program run by Gemini, the main asset in the empire of crypto pioneers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. Earn has likewise suspended repayments, while negotiations on the restructuring of Genesis' debts continue.