First Mover Americas: Bitcoin, Ether Rise Slightly After Genesis' Chapter 11 Filing
The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for Jan. 20, 2023.
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:14 p.m. UTC:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/PL52HQLRIVGVVDLMHSFDR3C5WQ.png)
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Genesis Global Holdco LLC, the parent company of troubled cryptocurrency lender Genesis Global Capital, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late Thursday after being pummeled by two of 2022's biggest industry collapses, those of hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and exchange FTX. In its filing, Genesis Global Capital, the partner firm of Gemini's defunct interest-bearing Earn program, estimated it has more than 100,000 creditors and between $1 billion and $10 billion in liabilities, as well as assets. Genesis owes over $3.5 billion to its top 50 creditors, including crypto exchange Gemini, trading giant Cumberland, investment firm Mirana, MoonAlpha Finance and VanEck’s New Finance Income Fund. Genesis and CoinDesk are both owned by Digital Currency Group, or DCG.
Gemini CEO Cameron Winklevoss threatened to sue DCG CEO Barry Silbert over the repayment of a $900 million loan in a tweet published just minutes after Genesis filed for Chapter 11. The tweet comes after Winklevoss waged a Twitter war against DCG to recover the loan amid his exchange’s own struggles. Winklevoss called Genesis' bankruptcy a “crucial step” toward recovering Gemini users’ assets. But he still intends to sue Silbert and Genesis’ parent company, DCG, unless Silbert makes a "fair offer" to DCG's creditors.
Bitcoin rose 1% to around $21,000 over the past 24 hours after the Genesis bankruptcy news hit the wires. Ether rose 2% to $1,545, CoinDesk data shows. Traders weren’t surprised by bitcoin's and ether's resilience following the news. “The market appeared to expect the Genesis bankruptcy filing for the last 48 hours as the GBTC discount suddenly widened again. With Genesis filing for bankruptcy, this removes a negative overhang from the market, and crypto investors can finally focus on fundamentals," Markus Thielen, head of strategy and research at crypto-services provider Matrixport, said, referring to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, a fund that tracks the price of bitcoin. Grayscale is owned by DCG.
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- The chart shows bitcoin has historically moved in four-year cycles centered around mining reward halving.
- Cycles comprised a 12-month-long bear market that ended 15-17 months ahead of the halving, paving the way for a three-year uptrend.
- Bitcoin's fourth halving is due early next year.
- "The conditions are ripe for a breakthrough in 2023 that could catalyze a new bull market. We are excited by the growth of layer 2 solutions, the development of ZK-rollups and privacy solutions, and many other emergent capabilities of crypto," Bitwise's analysts led by Chief Investment Officer Matthew Hougan wrote in a review of the fourth quarter.
– Omkar Godbole
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Lyllah Ledesma is a CoinDesk Markets reporter currently based in Europe. She holds bitcoin, ether and small amounts of other crypto assets.
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Omkar Godbole is a Co-Managing Editor on CoinDesk's Markets team.