Digital Currency Group Details Millions In Outstanding Debts To Genesis, Investment In Exchanges Like FTX

Institutional investor Digital Currency Group has revealed it owes Genesis, a digital currency lending firm, $447.5 million and an additional $78 million in Bitcoin BTC/USD.

These debts are set to mature in May of this year and come in addition to an outstanding promissory note.

DCG also has a $500-million credit line, which originated between January and May 2022 and carries double-digit interest rates of between 10% to 12%.

DCG CEO Barry Silbert stated that the interest rate is "priced at prevailing market interest rates."

More Details On DCG's Finances: The firm also revealed that it made a "small equity investment" of $250,000 in FTX's Series B round, raised in July 2021.

The investment is "part of our ongoing strategy to invest in exchanges all over the world," and DCG has now invested in nearly two dozen of them, Silbert said.

Silbert clarified that DCG did not do business — trading or lending — with FTX and that its trading account with the exchange accounted for less than 1% of its total trading volume.

Silbert also stated that Genesis, not DCG, did business — trading and lending — with Alameda Research, another digital currency exchange, and added that he has "no personal or professional relationship" with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, apart from one conversation last summer and "a few emails at the time."

Also read: Crypto.com Set To Delist Tether In This Country: What Customers Need To Do By Jan. 31

He also said that DCG "never had a relationship with Three Arrows Capital," and he only had one introduction call with one of its co-founders in 2020.

DCG orchestrated a "takeover" of Three Arrows' bankruptcy claim from Genesis, citing that "there was palpable fear in the market of contagion spreading through and devastating the entire industry" and that DCG and its board believed that "it was in the best interest of Genesis, its lenders, and DCG to try to help support Genesis."

Galaxy Digital CEO Downplays Crisis Facing DCG, Genesis: Meanwhile, Galaxy Digital Holdings CEO Mike Novogratz reassured the crypto community about the situation surrounding DCG and Genesis.

He stated that while it is not good news, it will not cause widespread selling.

In an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Novogratz said the developments surrounding DCG and its related companies will likely play out over the next quarter.

He added that while there are still some outstanding issues, he does not expect it will lead to a significant amount of selling in the market, rather it will just be "not good news."

"The outlook for #crypto is not horrible but it's not great. We've got regulatory headwinds we didn't have before. People are going to cut costs and survive this transition period," says @novogratz. "Crypto is not going away. It's a pretty clean market right now." pic.twitter.com/k57ITlRFOV
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) January 10, 2023