Tag: Digital Currency Group

Grayscale Investments has lodged a confidential S‑1 with the U.S. SEC, teeing up what could be the most closely watched crypto IPO since Coinbase—just as Bitcoin prints fresh all‑time highs north of $120k. The move could unlock a new liquidity vein for Digital Currency Group (DCG) and reshape the fee war in spot‑crypto ETFs.

CoinDesk, the prominent U.S. crypto news platform, has been acquired by Bullish, a crypto exchange led by former New York Stock Exchange president Tom Farley. This acquisition comes as CoinDesk's parent company, Digital Currency Group (DCG), grapples with financial challenges arising from the collapse of FTX. CoinDesk carried out a mass termination in the summer and sought new owners willing to inject fresh funds.

On "Bloomberg Markets," Michael Sonnenshein, the CEO of Grayscale Investments, characterized the U.S. appeals court's decision to overturn the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) block on his company's proposed Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) as a significant victory. This ruling has reignited optimism for launching the inaugural US crypto ETF. However, the SEC has pushed back its decision deadline until October for all the applications.

The narrative of the sudden death of U.S. banks Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank, and most recently Signature Bank sounds like a complicated conspiracy story written by John Grisham, Ken Follet, or John Le Carre. The main character is Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). He allegedly intentionally triggered the collapse of the Terra-Luna stablecoin scheme in 2022 and, with it, the implosion of the worldwide crypto scene, which finally also swept the banking scene, forcing states and regulators to intervene.

The big players in the global crypto scene are waging war against each other. New York-based hedge fund Fir Tree Capital Management is suing Grayscale Investments for information to investigate potential mismanagement and conflicts of interest at its $10.7 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), Bloomberg reports. GBTC is trading at a 43% discount to the value of the Bitcoin it holds, partly because the firm issued many shares in the past few years and didn’t redeem any of them.

The liquidity crisis in the crypto segment continues to spread. It looks like hardly any crypto exchange, broker, or lender will emerge unscathed from the bankruptcy tsunami. This also applies to Bitcoin miners who sell their Bitcoins almost as fast as they mine. Bitcoin miners are selling their coins at record levels, last seen in 2016. Most big mining players in the U.S face severe financial pressure, and some have already filed for bankruptcy. It seems to be the endgame!

Genesis Global Capital, the troubled crypto lender, has hired the investment bank Moelis & Company to explore options, including a potential bankruptcy, the New York Times reports. Insiders told the NYT that no final decisions had been made and that it was still possible for the company to avert a bankruptcy filing. Genesis was a trading partner with FTX and said that $175 million of its assets were stuck at FTX when the exchange froze accounts shortly before filing for bankruptcy this month.

The New York-based digital asset brokerage and crypto lender Genesis Global Trading Inc. (www.genesistrading.com) announced that CEO Michael Moro is stepping down. Genesis COO Derar Islim will take over as interim CEO. Furthermore, WSJ reports that the company plans to fire 20% of its workforce. During the 2021 crypto bull run, the company's loan originations surged more than sevenfold to $131 billion, and the company increased its headcount by 22% to 260. A cut of 20% equates to the loss of about 52 jobs.

The crypto bull-run happened amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Bitcoin (BTC) finished 2020 just shy of $30,000 with a market cap of around $530 billion. A year ago, the price had been $7,100. 2020 was the year of institutional investors and PayPal's entry. With the crypto explosion, the digital Assets Under Management (AUM) of Barry Silbert's pioneering Grayscale Investments crypto trusts have surpassed the $20 billion mark. That's quite something, isn't it?