Crypto Lender Genesis May Be Facing Loss of Hundreds of Millions: Report

Suvashree Ghosh, Bloomberg News

Michael Moro, chief executive officer of Genesis Trading, speaks virtually during the Bloomberg Crypto Summit on a laptop computer in Tiskilwa, Illinois, U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. With Bitcoin reaching its all-time highs and interest in cryptocurrencies surging from major banks and asset managers, the future of digital assets has rarely seemed brighter. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Crypto lender Genesis Trading is looking at a potential loss running into the “hundreds of millions” of dollars, CoinDesk reported, citing people it didn’t identify.

The losses at the top digital-asset lender are at least partially due to its exposure to Three Arrows Capital and Babel Finance, CoinDesk said in its report on Thursday.

Three Arrows is facing a liquidation case ordered by a British Virgin Islands court as the crypto-focused fund succumbed to a $2 trillion wipeout of the digital-asset market. The contagion that started with the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin last month is spreading fast, creating liquidity stress across the crypto complex -- affecting lenders like Celsius Network and Babel Finance, crypto brokers including Voyager Digital and investors like Three Arrows.

The precise amount of losses at Genesis, which is owned by Digital Currency Group, also the owner of CoinDesk, isn’t yet known as the company tries to salvage some of its losses by seeking partial repayments from counterparties. Some losses may have been offset through hedging, according to the report.

Genesis has been pulling credit lines from some counterparties, CoinDesk reported, citing another unidentified person.