DCG Agrees to Sell Genesis in a Pact With Major Creditors

According to a Monday announcement, the Digital Currency Group is planning to sell both the lending and trading branches of the bankrupt firm Genesis. The preliminary agreement was allegedly reached between two main parties—the DCG and the Gemini Trust.

DCG Planning to Sell Genesis

Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group allegedly reached an agreement with a group of Genesis’ largest creditors to sell the firm’s trading and lending arms as a part of its bankruptcy proceedings. Earlier on Monday, it was reported that the DCG entered into an in-principle deal with the group, collectively owed around $2.4 billion.

Gemini’s Cameron Winklevoss wrote on Twitter with regard to the agreement calling it “a plan that provides a path for Earn users to recover their assets.” Winklevoss also revealed that his firm would be contributing an additional $100 million to Gemini Earn users in an effort to help them recover all of their assets.

While the exact terms of the agreement have yet to be announced, the deal allegedly deals with the refinancing of DCG’s now-infamous 10-year promissory note, as well as with the resolving of issues involving Gensis’ entities. The agreement is yet to be sent to the company’s other creditors—including hundreds of thousands of Gemini Earn customers.

Shortly after Genesis froze withdrawals from its lending platform, the Digital Currency Group allegedly started receiving offers for the acquisition of another of its subsidiaries—the news outlet CoinDesk—for as much as $300 million. More recently, it was reported that CoinDesk hired investment bankers to help it process acquisition offers.

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Why is the DCG Planning to Sell Genesis?

Genesis was one of the first companies to show signs of the contagion spreading from the collapse of FTX when it froze withdrawals on November 16th citing “extreme market dislocation”. Over the following months, there was a great deal of uncertainty as it was revealed both that the company hired restructuring advisors, and that it had already, sometime in November, attempted and failed to raise $1 billion in rescue funds. 

Toward the beginning of 2023, things started pointing heavily toward bankruptcy as Genesis fired 30% of its staff, and, the firm indeed filed for bankruptcy just days later on January 20th. At the same time, the feud between the Gemini Trust and the Digital Currency Group became public when Cameron Winklevoss published two open letters addressed to Barry Silbert—accusing him of negotiating in bad faith in the first one, and calling for his removal in the second.

Later in January, Gemini announced the end of its Genesis-affected Earn program, and the termination of its agreement with the cryptocurrency lender. The conflict became even more complicated at the same time when the SEC sued both companies over unregistered securities offerings made through Gemini and the issue ultimately concluded with Genesis’ bankruptcy.  Furthermore, the Winklevoss twins and Barry Silbert appear to have agreed to bury the hatched judging from the deal on the sale of Genesis.

Editorial Update (7th February 2023, 6:16 PM EST): Added a paragraph on Cameron Winklevoss’ Twitter thread.

Editorial Update (8th February 2023, 1:20 PM EST): A link to the official announcement was added.

Who will ultimately acquire Genesis? Tell us what you think in the comments below.