- Genesis has lowered its lifesaving fundraise to $500 million
- The company had been seeking $1 billion for survival
- The company told Reuters it had no plans to file for bankruptcy
Crypto lending giant Genesis has halved the amount of money it says it needs to avoid bankruptcy from $1 billion to $500 million. The company, which has been a high profile casualty of the crypto contagion, was seeking the bailout after being impacted by various elements within the crypto collapse of 2022, with the collapse of FTX suddenly sparking fears of its collapse. Genesis has said it has no plans to file “imminently” for bankruptcy, but this may be dictated by what happens with its raise.
Genesis Seeking Funding in Dark Times
Genesis went all out to reassure customers and the wider crypto public on November 18 that all its funds were secure, in response to the proof of reserves movement that has sprung up in the wake of the FTX collapse. This didn’t seem to appease the crypto community very much, seeing as it came the day after after it was forced to halt withdrawals and new loans through its Genesis Global Capital lending arm, and offered no further transparency.
On Friday it was reported that Genesis needs $1 billion in order to keep going, a sum that was universally met with astonishment given the lack of appetite for crypto funding out there at the moment. Indeed, the sum seems to have been too much for Genesis to find – The Block reported last night that it had slashed this target to $500 million:
Sources tell The Block crypto trading firm Genesis—which has been struggling to raise emergency capital to shore up its lending unit’s liquidity profile—has slashed its raise target from $1bn to $500 million. As Bloomberg reported, it faces potential bankruptcy w/o funding.
— Frank Chaparro (@fintechfrank) November 21, 2022
No Plans to File for Bankruptcy “Imminently”
Genesis also told Reuters that it had no plans to “file bankruptcy imminently”, adding that its goal is to “resolve the current situation consensually without the need for any bankruptcy filing”, with conversations with creditors ongoing.
The crypto market hasn’t taken the news that Genesis could fold well at all, with Bitcoin falling to a two-year low of $15,485. If Genesis does go under, we can expect to be able to pick up some more bargains in the not too distant future.
