Crypto lender Genesis and its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) allegedly owes $900 million to Gemini's clients, according to a Financial Times report disclosed on Dec. 3 citing people familiar with the matter. The issue derives from the FTX dramatic collapse in November. Crypto exchange Gemini operates a product called Gemini Earn in partnership with Genesis, offering investors the opportunity to earn 8% in interest by lending out their crypto, including Bitcoin and stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies. On Nov. 16, Genesis announced it had temporarily suspended withdrawals citing “unprecedented market turmoil, days after disclosing around $175 million worth …

Just a month after the controversial fall of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange and 130 affiliated companies, a former high-ranking executive is reportedly seeking out investors to launch a crypto startup. The ex-president of FTX US, Brett Harrison, is on the lookout for $6 million in funding to launch a start-up that would build crypto trading software for big investors, according to The Information. Harrison’s funding round would be against a $60 million valuation. On Sept. 27, Harrison announced his plans to step down as the president of FTX US as he moved into an advisory role — over a month …

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. The FTX contagion that started in the second week of November is still haunting various crypto protocols in the DeFi ecosystem. The latest to fall prey to the contagion includes the Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Serum, of which Alameda and FTX were backers. Another DeFi crypto trading firm Auros Global missed its principal repayment on a 2,400 Wrapped Ether (wETH) DeFi loan. Looking at some other key news in the DeFi ecosystem, popular DEX …

The reality is that blockchain technology can still deliver substantial benefits, particularly within the fine arts. And for those who have been paying attention, 2022 has been a year of incredible normalization for nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Simply put, major institutions across various sectors have dipped their toes into Web3. In November, Instagram announced that creators would soon have the functionality to make and sell NFTs. Apple similarly announced in September that NFTs could be sold in its App Store. Put together, that’s 3.5 billion people (2 billion from Instagram and 1.5 billion from the App Store). Although each of these …

The leadership with the United States House Financial Services Committee have separately called on former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to appear in an investigative hearing scheduled for Dec. 13. In Dec. 2 posts on Twitter, House Financial Services Committee chair Maxine Waters, a Democrat, and ranking member Patrick McHenry, a Republican, requested SBF speak at a hearing aimed at investigating the events around the collapse of FTX. It’s unclear if the U.S. lawmakers intended the former FTX CEO to appear in person or remotely from the Bahamas. “[Sam Bankman-Fried], we appreciate that you've been candid in your discussions about what …

The United States Trustee handling FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings has referred to the now-defunct exchange as the "fastest big corporate failure in American history," and is calling for an independent probe to look into its downfall. In a Dec. 1 motion, U.S. Trustee Andrew Vara noted that over the course of eight days in November, debtors "suffered a virtually unprecedented decline in value" from a market high of $32 billion earlier in the year to a several liquidity crisis after a "proverbial 'run on the bank.'" "The result is what is likely the fastest big corporate failure in American history, resulting …

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has been lambasted this week following a series of controversial public appearances, with Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novogratz one of the latest to dish out a lashing to the former kingpin of crypto. On Dec. 1, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz unleashed a tirade of criticism towards SBF concerning his interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times annual DealBook Summit on Nov. 30. Speaking to Bloomberg, Novogratz characterized SBF as “delusional” following his declaration in the live interview that he never tried to commit fraud. “It’s kind of surprising that his lawyers …

The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has submitted a proposed change in state laws that would allow it to charge licensed crypto companies for regulating them. While that may seem like an odd proposition, under Financial Services Law (FSL) it is common practice for the DFS to charge licensed non-crypto financial entities for the cost and expenses of maintaining oversight over them. The proposal is led by DFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris, who announced the move via the DFS website on Dec. 1 and has submitted it for public feedback over the following 10 days. Essentially, Harris is …

The Japanese subsidiary of the now-defunct FTX crypto exchange has come out with a roadmap to resume withdrawals, after confirming that its customers’ assets are not part of FTX's bankruptcy proceedings. The firm provided an update on Dec. 1, stating it has been able to confirm that its customers’ assets "should not" be part of FTX Japan's estate due to Japanese regulations which mandate that crypto exchanges must separate client funds from their own assets. This was according to Landis Rath & Cobb LLP, the law firm representing FTX Group in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. FTX Japan was only …

United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair Rostin Behnam told a Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee meeting Dec. 1 that his agency’s regulations contain “core elements that have served the markets for decades.” But as the fallout from the FTX collapse gets sorted out, notable gaps in current legislation have come to light, Behnam and the senators agreed. Sen. Tina Smith called the FTX collapse “shocking, not surprising,” and said that future crises will continue to occur as long as regulatory gaps remain. Behnam pointed out that the Securities and Exchange Commission has the authority to require basic safeguards …

As a crypto CEO, I know how often our sector is misunderstood and criticized. Sometimes, the criticism is deserved because we have not always done our part to shine a light on the utility and use cases powering positive change. But other times, it’s based on the assumption that all players in this industry are the same, which is just not true. Recently, skepticism reached new heights with the epic crash of FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world — and perhaps the largest-ever example of the need for regulatory oversight. Given the positioning of FTX, it …

Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, chair Rostin Behnam has cited LedgerX, the crypto derivatives and clearing platform based in the United States which was not part of FTX Group’s Chapter 11 filing, as an example of how regulating crypto firms could benefit U.S. consumers. In a Dec. 1 hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee exploring the collapse of FTX, Behnam said LedgerX had essentially been “walled off” from many of the companies within FTX Group — including those that filed for bankruptcy — that provided a regulatory window for the CFTC. The CFTC chair said LedgerX was “healthy”, “solvent”, …