Tag: ftx

Bankman-Fried blames Changpeng Zhao for campaign against FTX

Sam Bankman-Fried accused Binance boss Changpeng “CZ” Zhao of waging a lengthy campaign to destroy his crypto empire on Thursday while making yet another attempt to explain what led to FTX’s catastrophic bankruptcy.

In a lengthy Substack post, the disgraced former FTX CEO alleged that Zhao’s “fateful tweet” on Nov. 6 capped a “extremely effective months-long PR campaign against FTX.”

“In November 2022, an extreme, quick, targeted crash precipitated by the CEO of Binance made Alameda insolvent,” Bankman-Fried wrote.

The disgraced FTX founder’s business collapsed shortly after Zhao tweeted that Binance was dumping its position on FTX’s in-house digital token FTT.

The tweet started a domino effect that pushed Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund Alameda Research into insolvency and FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11.

The Post has reached out to Binance for further comment.

The blog post marked some of Bankman-Fried’s first public comments since he pleaded not guilty to eight federal charges of fraud in connection to FTX’s collapse on Jan. 3. The feds have accused the 30-year-old of perpetuating a scheme to bilk FTX customers out of billions of dollars that were used to fund his ritzy lifestyle and prop up risky bets at Almeda.

Bankman-Fried and Zhao have regularly exchanged insults since FTX’s downfall. In December, Zhao responded directly to claims that his actions caused the bankruptcy, tweeting that “FTX killed themselves (and their users) because they stole billions of dollars in user funds.”

Changpeng Zhao has denied his actions caused FTX’s downfall.
REUTERS

“No healthy business can be destroyed by a tweet,” Zhao added.

Bankman-Fried cycled through many of his other oft-repeated defenses in the post and maintained his innocence on the fraud charges. The former FTX boss, who has claimed to be down to his last $100,000, also denied having a secret stash of money.

“I didn’t steal funds, and I certainly didn’t stash billions away,” Bankman-Fried said. “Nearly all of my assets were and still are utilizable to backstop FTX customers.”

Sam Bankman-Fried
Sam Bankman-Fried faces 115 years in prison.
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Bankman-Fried has been in a separate legal battle in bankruptcy court with the feds and multiple creditors over a $460 million stake in Robinhood. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have argued he should retain control of the stake to fund his legal defense.

“[I have] offered to contribute nearly all of my personal shares in Robinhood to customers — or 100%, if the Chapter 11 team would honor my D&O legal expense indemnification,” he wrote.

Bankman-Fried’s post included several charts detailing his “estimates” of the financial situations at FTX and Alameda. He claimed that Alameda had a net asset value of $100 billion as recently as 2021.

Zhao is CEO of Binance.
REUTERS

“All of which is to say: no funds were stolen,” Bankman-Fried wrote. “Alameda lost money due to a market crash it was not adequately hedged for.”

Bankman-Fried is currently under house arrest at his parents’ mansion in California. He faces up to 115 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

SBF penned a lengthy blog post on FTX’s demise.
REUTERS

Several former FTX and Alameda executives, including Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, are cooperating with authorities on their case against Bankman-Fried.



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RBI Suggests Common Approach to Crypto Assets to Avoid Potential Financial Risks

To address potential financial stability risks and protect investors, it is important to arrive at a common approach to crypto assets, the Financial Stability Report released by RBI said on Thursday.

In this context, various options are being considered internationally, it said.

One option is to apply the same-risk-same-regulatory-outcome principle and subject them to the same regulation applicable to traditional financial intermediaries and exchanges, the report said.

Another option is to prohibit crypto assets, since their real life use cases are next to negligible and the challenge is that different countries have different legal systems and individual rights vis-à-vis state powers, it noted.

A third option is to let it implode and make it systemically irrelevant as the underlying instability and riskiness will ultimately prevent the sector from growing, it said.

The third option, however, is fraught with risks as the sector may become more interconnected with mainstream finance and divert financing away from traditional finance with broader effect on the real economy, the report said.

Regulating new technology and business models after they have grown to a systemic level is challenging, it pointed out.

To promote responsible innovation and to mitigate financial stability risks in crypto ecosystem, the report said it is vital for policymakers to design an appropriate policy approach.

In this context, under India’s G20 presidency, one of the priorities is to develop a framework for global regulation, including the possibility of prohibition, of unbacked crypto assets, stablecoins and decentralised finance (DeFi), it said.

The collapse and bankruptcy of the crypto exchange FTX and subsequent sell-off in the crypto assets market have highlighted the inherent vulnerabilities in the crypto ecosystem.

Recently, Binance, the largest crypto exchange, also prohibited withdrawals of stablecoins on its platform. The implosion of FTX was preceded by failure of TerraUSD/Luna, an algorithmic stablecoin, a run on Celsius, a crypto lender, and bankruptcy of Three Arrows Capital, a cryptocurrency hedge fund.

Observing that the turmoil has provided several insights, it said crypto assets are highly volatile.

The price of Bitcoin has tumbled by 74 percent (as on December 14, 2022) from its peak in November 2021. Other crypto assets have also experienced similar falls in prices and heightened volatility.

In addition, crypto assets exhibit high correlations with equities, it noted.

Furthermore, it said, contrary to claims that they are an alternative source of value due to inflation hedging benefits, crypto assets’ value has fallen even as inflation rose.

Second, the report said, the collapse of TerraUSD/Luna is a reminder of how so-called stablecoins that promise to maintain a stable value relative to fiat currency are subject to classic confidence runs.

Finally, it said, the failure of FTX and Celsius reveals that crypto exchanges and trading platforms were carrying out different functions such as lending, brokerage, clearing and settlement that have different risks without appropriate governance structures.

This exposed them to credit, market and liquidity risks disproportionate to what was necessary to discharge their essential functions, it said, adding leverage is a constant theme across the crypto ecosystem, making failures rapid and losses huge and sudden.

 

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Indian DeFi-Enthusiasts Call FTX Collapse ‘Good on Macro Level’, Here’s Why

FTX, the US-based crypto platform that succumbed to liquidity crunch and shook-up the crypto market in November, led to the wipe-off of nearly $200 billion (roughly Rs. 16,53,499 crore) from the market. The drastic reaction from investors who pulled back capital from digital assets left several crypto firms gasping for breath. As per Indian Web3 builders, this FTX collapse, despite its severity, must be seen as a ‘blessing in disguise’ that has already begun to push for more finetuned financial structure around crypto that would slash its often-criticised element of volatility.

“The companies that do not have a strong foundation and have strong investments will be flushed out,” said Tarusha Mittal, the COO and Co-Founder of Web3-focussed app store, Dapps and group farming and staking protocol, UniFarm.

In conversation with Gadgets 360, Mittal said that crypto players and investors need to realise, now more than ever, that Web3 is all about decentralisation.

“The FTX collapse is good on the macro level for the industry. FTX collapse is a good reminder that crypto is all about removing centralised bodies and re-gaining financial responsibility and independence,” Mittal noted.

Web3 is popularly explained as the upcoming next generation of Internet as we know it today. Instead of being controlled by servers and big tech companies, Web3 will be based on blockchains, which are not controlled by centralised bodies and hence, offer complete freedom with irreversible records of all processes.

Cryptocurrencies, Metaverse, NFTs, and Decentralised Finance (DeFi) — are the new technologies that will make for special elements that will be part of Web3.

Mahin Gupta, the founder of digital wallet service provider Liminal, also weighed in on the FTX situation. He said that major incidences like this could push the adoption of important Web3 tools, which are available but not the first choice for investors as yet.

“Moving towards DeFi at the earliest is the key to learning from FTX collapse and the onus lies on industry players to build a safety net around user funds. Self-custody or licensed custodian services should be actively used for storing digital assets which are under the complete control of the users rather than with companies,” Gupta told Gadgets 360.

After FTX declared for bankruptcy, several crypto exchanges seemingly lost active users.

From India as well as other nations, established exchanges like Binance, KuCoin, and Giottius conducted audits of their reserves to ensure customers that their funds were safe in times of emergency bulk withdrawals.

Industry leaders still believe that the crypto community is ready to step into the next year, with more transparency than we began 2022 with.

“Significant technological advancements have been made in the industry to enhance transparency and security. The downturn in the crypto and stock markets is a result of various macroeconomic factors that have impacted investor sentiments. As we move into the new year, it is a good opportunity for crypto investors to review their portfolios and strategise their investments and security solutions for better outcomes,” Edul Patel, CEO & Co-Founder of crypto investment firm Mudrex, told Gadgets 360.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article. 

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Sam Bankman-Fried is fighting to keep $450m stake in Robinhood

Sam Bankman-Fried is battling to keep a $450 million stake in retail stock Robinhood that FTX’s new boss is trying to claw back from the indicted crypto huckster, according to court records.

The ousted FTX founder claims he is entitled to the assets listed under Emergent Fidelity Technologies, a holding company Bankman-Fried registered in Antigua.

The filings released Thursday in a Delaware bankruptcy court show Bankman-Fried is the sole director and majority stakeholder of Emergent.

However, new FTX CEO John J. Ray III — who is seeking to regain billions in investor funds that Bankman-Fried allegedly swindled from them to prop up his hedge fund Alameda Research — argued the stake in Robinhood belongs to FTX.

The matter is complicated further by the fact that two other investors — the crypto lending firm BlockFi and FTX creditor Yonatan Ben Shimon — are also claiming ownership of the Robinhood stake.

John J. Ray III was installed as CEO of FTX after the company was placed in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
AP

In May, Emergent and Bankman-Fried revealed that it owned a 7.6% stake in Robinhood. According to SEC filings, Bankman-Fried paid $648 million for more than 56.3 million shares in the app.

On Friday, shares of Robinhood were trading at $8, putting the stake’s worth at $447 million — a $200 million loss.

FTX, which has been placed under the stewardship of Ray while being administered under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, seeks to freeze any activity in the shares while the legal process plays out.

Bankman-Fried’s Antigua-based holding company bought a 7.6% stake in Robinhood earlier this year.
Robin App

“The debtors are conducting an investigation into the business affairs of the FTX group,” FTX said in the filing.

“This investigation to date indicates that the Robinhood shares are property of the debtors’ estates, held only nominally by Emergent.”

Last month, BlockFi filed suit against Bankman-Fried, claiming that Alameda Research promised to secure $1 billion in loans that included the Robinhood stake.

BlockFi alleged that Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s on-again, off-again girlfriend who ran Alameda Research, made the pledge.

But FTX, which is contesting BlockFi’s claim, said Ellison had no standing to make such a promise.

Yonatan Ben Shimon, a fintech executive and FTX creditor, claims he is the rightful owner of the Robinhood stake.
virtualhumans.org

“The Robinhood Shares were included in these pledged assets by Alameda’s then-CEO, despite the fact that the Robinhood Shares were nominally held by Emergent, because Alameda had then, and continues to have, a property interest in the Robinhood Shares,” FTX said in its court filing.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev told CNBC earlier this month that he expects the stake in his company to be tied up in bankruptcy proceedings for the foreseeable future.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said that ownership of the stake in his company will be determined in bankruptcy proceedings.
AP

“I’m not surprised that it’s one of the more valuable assets they have on their balance sheet, because it is public company’s stock,” Tenev told CNBC.

 “We’re just watching this unfold. And it’s going to be locked up in bankruptcy proceedings — most likely for some time — and so we’re just kind of seeing how that plays out.”

Bankman-Fried was freed on $250 million bond on Thursday. He awaits trial on federal charges including wire fraud and securities fraud.

Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang have pledged guilty to federal charges of fraud. They have indicated they will cooperate with investigators. The have both been released on $250,000 bail.

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Private Cryptocurrencies’ Growth Can Precipitate Next Financial Crisis: RBI Governor

Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday warned that allowing private cryptocurrencies to grow can precipitate the next financial crisis.

Speaking at the BFSI Insight Summit in Mumbai, Das also said the government and the central bank have been working in a coordinated manner to tame inflation and the Centre is “equally serious” about curbing price rise.

On private cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Das reiterated the RBI’s demand for a complete ban, saying such instruments do not have any underlying value and are speculative in nature.

“It’s a 100 percent speculative activity, and I would still hold the view that it should be prohibited. If you try to regulate it and allow it to grow, please mark my words, the next financial crisis will come from private cryptocurrencies,” he said.

“Cryptocurrencies have huge inherent risks from macroeconomic and financial stability (perspective) and we have been pointing it out,” he added.

The RBI governor further said the developments over the last one year, which include the latest crash of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which has been termed as one of the biggest financial frauds in the history of the US, illustrate the threat posed by such instruments.

“After all these, I don’t think we need to say anything more about our stand,” Das remarked, adding that private cryptocurrencies’ valuation has shrunk and there is no underlying value for the market-determined price.

On the central bank digital currency (CBDC), Das said such fiat digital money is the future and central bank efforts are not motivated by a fear of missing out on the action created by the private cryptocurrencies.

He said the Indian CBDC pilot is different from having a UPI wallet, and added that it has certain unique features like the ability to return the money in 24 hours as well.

Meanwhile, in remarks on inflation, Das said the RBI’s measures like rate hikes and liquidity actions have been complemented by government’s steps on the supply side.

“I must say that to check inflation, there has been a very coordinated approach between the central bank and the central government,” Das said.

“Government also is equally serious about controlling inflation… everyone is interested in bringing down inflation and I am sure the government also will be equally keen that inflation is brought down,” he added.

The governor also said this government’s last full Budget before the general election in 2024 will not have any bearing on the conduct of the monetary policy.

 

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Coinbase Says Apple’s App Store Blocked Its App Release on NFTs in Wallet

Coinbase Global said on Thursday customers using Apple’s iOS will not be able to send non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the cryptocurrency exchange’s wallet anymore.

“Apple‘s claim is that the gas fees required to send NFTs need to be paid through their In-App Purchase system, so that they can collect 30 percent of the gas fee,” Coinbase Wallet added in a tweet.

Coinbase said it would not be able to comply with the requirement even if it tried as the iPhone maker’s proprietary in-app purchase system does not support crypto.

“Apple has introduced new policies to protect their profits at the expense of consumer investment in NFTs and developer innovation across the crypto ecosystem,” said Coinbase, adding the policy was similar to Apple trying to take a cut of fees for every email that gets sent over open internet protocols.

Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the matter.

The 30 percent fees has been a contentious point between the world’s most valuable company and other app developers like Spotify and Fortnite maker Epic Games, which have accused the company of misusing its “monopoly”.

Coinbase’s issue with Apple comes at difficult time for the crypto exchange, whose shares are down roughly 80 percent so far this year. The company has also cut jobs to manage expenses as investors lose appetite for cryptocurrencies.

NFTs, which are digital assets that exist on the blockchain and carry unique digital signatures, exploded in popularity in 2021 but have seen demand crippled by the crypto winter in recent months.

Cryptocurrencies have been roiled as higher interest rates and worries of an economic downturn force investors to dump risky assets with the recent collapse of rival exchange FTX also piling pressure on the industry.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

 

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BlockFi Files for Bankruptcy in the US, Cites Exposure to FTX Amid Crypto Meltdown

Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, it said on Monday, the latest industry casualty after the firm was hurt by exposure to the spectacular collapse of the FTX exchange earlier this month.

The filing in a New Jersey court comes as crypto prices have plummeted. The price of bitcoin, the most popular digital currency by far, is down more than 70 percent from a 2021 peak.

“BlockFi’s Chapter 11 restructuring underscores significant asset contagion risks associated with the crypto ecosystem,” said Monsur Hussain, senior director at Fitch Ratings.

New Jersey-based BlockFi, founded by fintech executive-turned-crypto entrepreneur Zac Prince, said in a bankruptcy filing that its substantial exposure to FTX created a liquidity crisis. FTX, founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, filed for protection in the United States this month after traders pulled $6 billion (roughly Rs. 49,020) from the platform in three days and rival exchange Binance abandoned a rescue deal.

“Although the debtors’ exposure to FTX is a major cause of this bankruptcy filing, the debtors do not face the myriad issues apparently facing FTX,” said the bankruptcy filing by Mark Renzi, managing director at Berkeley Research Group, the proposed financial advisor for BlockFi. “Quite the opposite.”

BlockFi said the liquidity crisis was due to its exposure to FTX via loans to Alameda, a crypto trading firm affiliated with FTX, as well as cryptocurrencies held on FTX’s platform that became trapped there. BlockFi listed its assets and liabilities as being between $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,170 crore) and $10 billion (roughly Rs. 81,700 crore).

BlockFi on Monday also sued a holding company for Bankman-Fried, seeking to recover shares in Robinhood Markets Inc pledged as collateral three weeks ago, before BlockFi and FTX filed for bankruptcy protection.

Renzi said BlockFi had sold a portion of its crypto assets earlier in November to fund its bankruptcy. Those sales raised $238.6 million (roughly Rs. in cash, and BlockFi now has $256.5 million (roughly Rs. 2,100 crore) in cash on hand.

In a court filing on Monday, BlockFi listed FTX as its second-largest creditor, with $275 million owed on a loan extended earlier this year. It said it owes money to more than 100,000 creditors. The company also said in a separate filing it plans to lay off two-thirds of its 292 employees.

Under a deal signed with FTX in July BlockFi was to receive a $400 million (Rs. 3,270 crore) revolving credit facility while FTX got an option to buy it for up to $240 million (roughly Rs. 1,960 crore).

BlockFi’s bankruptcy filing also comes after two of BlockFi’s largest competitors, Celsius Network and Voyager Digital, filed for bankruptcy in July, citing extreme market conditions that had led to losses at both companies.

Crypto lenders, the de facto banks of the crypto world, boomed during the pandemic, attracting retail customers with double-digit rates in return for their cryptocurrency deposits.

Crypto lenders are not required to hold capital or liquidity buffers like traditional lenders and some found themselves exposed when a shortage of collateral forced them – and their customers – to shoulder large losses.

BlockFi’s first bankruptcy hearing is scheduled to take place on Tuesday. FTX did not respond to a request for comment.

Creditor list

BlockFi’s largest creditor is Ankura Trust, which represents creditors in stressed situations and is owed $729 million ( roughly Rs. 5,600 crore). Valar Ventures, a Peter Thiel-linked venture capital fund, owns 19 percent of BlockFi equity shares.

BlockFi also listed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as one of its largest creditors, with a $30 million (roughly Rs. 245 crore) claim. In February, a BlockFi subsidiary agreed to pay $100 million (roughly Rs. 820 crore) to the SEC and 32 states to settle charges in connection with a retail crypto lending product the company offered to nearly 600,000 investors.

Bain Capital Ventures and Tiger Global co-led BlockFi’s March 2021 funding round, BlockFi said in a press release issued at the time. Both firms did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a blog post, BlockFi said its Chapter 11 cases will enable the company to stabilize its business and maximize value for all stakeholders.

“Acting in the best interest of our clients is our top priority and continues to guide our path forward,” BlockFi said.

In its bankruptcy filing, BlockFi said it had hired Kirkland & Ellis and Haynes & Boone as bankruptcy counsel.

BlockFi had earlier paused withdrawals from its platform.

In a filing, Renzi said Blockfi intends to seek authority to honor client withdrawal requests from its customer wallet accounts, in which crypto assets are held in custody. However, the company did not disclose plans for how it might treat withdrawal requests from its other products, including interest-bearing accounts.

“BlockFi clients may ultimately recover a substantial portion of their investments,” Renzi said in the filing.

Origins

BlockFi was founded in 2017 by Prince, currently the company’s chief executive officer, and Flori Marquez. Though headquartered in Jersey City, BlockFi also has offices in New York, Singapore, Poland and Argentina, according to its website.

In July, Prince had tweeted that “it’s time to stop putting BlockFi in the same bucket / sentence as Voyager and Celsius.”

“Two months ago we looked the ‘same.’ They shut down and have impending losses for their clients,” he said.

According to a profile of BlockFi published earlier this year by Inc, Prince was raised in San Antonio, Texas, and financed his college education at the University of Oklahoma and Texas State University with winnings from online poker tournaments. Before starting BlockFi with Marquez, he held jobs at Orchard Platform, a broker dealer, and at Zibby, a lease-to-own lender now called Katapult.

Marquez previously worked at Bond Street, a small business lending outfit that was folded into Goldman Sachs in 2017, according to Inc.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

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Binance to Establish Industry Recovery Initiative to Invest in Digital Sector Companies

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance said on Thursday it was committing $1 billion (nearly Rs. 8,200 crore) to establishing an industry recovery initiative (IRI) to invest in companies from the digital assets sector.

The move comes at a time when the crypto market is teetering from the collapse of FTX, which is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States.

The unraveling of one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world has also fanned worries around the industry’s continued ability to draw investments from venture capital and private equity giants.

Binance said it intends to ramp up its commitment amount to $2 billion (nearly Rs. 16,340 crore) in the near future depending on need.

“We anticipate this initiative will last about six months and will be flexible on the investment structure — token, fiat, equity, convertible instruments, debt, credit lines, etc,” the crypto exchange added in a statement.

Zhao said while speaking at a conference in Abu Dhabi last week that there was significant interest from industry players in a recovery fund his company plans to launch to help cryptocurrency projects facing a liquidity squeeze, following the collapse of rival FTX.

He said such a fund would help “reduce further cascading negative effects of FTX” without giving an exact figure for the fund.

Several crypto firms have been bracing for the fallout from the FTX collapse, with many counting their exposure in millions to the beleaguered exchange.

It was reported a few days back that Binance is also under global regulatory scrutiny following the sudden collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and its subsidiaries. While speaking to reporters, Republican Patrick McHenry, a senior House Republican, confirmed that Binance’s role in the FTX collapse is under congressional scrutiny. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao aka CZ has, however, has come out and vehemently denied taking part in the FTX collapse, citing that his exchange is a victim of the situation.

Binance has time and again argued that the cause of FTX’s collapse was ‘financial irregularities and possible fraud’ in written comments to a UK parliamentary committee. Notably, the UK counterparts wanted to know what role Binance played in the FTX collapse.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

 

 

 

 

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FTX Collapse: 2022 NBA Champions Golden State Warriors Named in Class-Action Lawsuit Over FTX Partnership

NBA champions Golden State Warriors are now among the individuals and organizations involved in a recent string of class action lawsuits related to the FTX crash. Multiple reports reveal that the NBA team is now accused of misleading FTX customers about the safety and reliability of the cryptocurrency exchange. The development arrives after Warriors franchise star player Stephen Curry was named alongside other celebrities like Tom Brady and Larry David in a lawsuit alleging that high-profile US sports stars were involved in deceptive practices targeting investors who became victims of FTX’s collapse in the US.

Elliott Lam, a Canadian citizen who lives in Hong Kong, filed a class-action lawsuit on Monday in San Francisco federal court for “thousands, if not millions” of people outside the US that trade cryptocurrency on FTX, according to a report by Reuters. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, who headed Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research trading firm, are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, Lam claims that FTX was “falsely representing” a “viable and safe way to invest in crypto.” Lam is seeking damages for the $750,000 (roughly Rs. 6.08 crore) worth of losses in his FTX account as well as other damages to customers outside the US.

The 2022 NBA champions announced that FTX was their official cryptocurrency platform, one of the first crypto partnerships in sports. At the time, Brett Harrison, president of FTX US, said the partnership with the Warriors provided a secure venue for fans overseas to access the franchise’s exclusive collectibles, enhancing FTX’s ability “to create a positive change, not only domestically but internationally, with one of the most prestigious professional sports franchises in the world.”

The partnership between the Warriors and FTX saw the basketball franchise drop exclusive NFT collections on the platform. FTX also had their logo virtually placed on the Warrior’s esports team’s court during NBA 2K League games, and on pole pads and press tables for the Santa Cruz Warriors.

Golden State was also involved in a lawsuit (via Bloomberg) in Miami on November 16 by US-based FTX customers who seek damages from FTX endorsers, including Warriors’ All-Star point guard Stephen Curry, NFL quarterback Tom Brady, comedian Larry David and women’s tennis star Naomi Osaka.

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Genesis Warns Investors of Possible Bankruptcy Without Fresh Funding After FTX Collapse: Report

Digital asset brokerage Genesis is struggling to raise fresh cash for its lending unit, and the firm has warned potential investors that it may need to file for bankruptcy if its efforts end up to no heed, according to a Bloomberg News report. The firm has faced a liquidity crunch since FTX filed for bankruptcy earlier this month and has reportedly been trying to raise at least $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,118 crore), having approached both Binance and Apollo Global Management. The possible bankruptcy also underscores how FTX’s collapse sent shockwaves through the wider crypto ecosystem that are showing no signs of abating.

“We have no plans to file bankruptcy imminently,” a representative for Genesis said in a statement to Bloomberg. “Our goal is to resolve the current situation consensually without the need for any bankruptcy filing. Genesis continues to have constructive conversations with creditors.”

The rush for funding was precipitated by a liquidity crunch at the lender after the sudden collapse of FTX, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges.

Genesis Global Capital, the lending business of Genesis Trading, last week temporarily suspended redemptions and new loan originations in the wake of FTX’s collapse and the implosion of Three Arrows Capital earlier this year. At the time, parent company Digital Currency Group said business operations at DCG and its other wholly owned subsidiaries were not affected.

DCG gave Genesis Trading an equity infusion of $140 million (roughly Rs. 1,136 crore) after it said its derivatives business had $175 million (roughly Rs. 1,420 crore) locked up on the FTX platform. “Genesis has no material exposure to FTT or any other tokens issued by centralised exchanges,” the firm said in a tweet on November 9.

The news shook crypto investors as Bitcoin extended its intraday slump to as low as $15,649 (roughly Rs. 12.7 lakh), though the token has since erased some of those losses, priced currently at $15,732 (roughly Rs. 12.77 lakh).

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