Venture capital firm Digital Currency Group (DCG) has completed a $700 million payment to its subsidiary company Genesis Global Capital (GGC) as a settlement of its short-term loans from the now-bankrupt crypto lending platform. This development comes four months after Genesis filed a lawsuit against DCG and one of the company’s affiliates regarding the repayment of overdue loans.
DCG Clears $1 Billion Debt Amidst Crypto Headwinds
According to a statement on January 5, Digital Currency Group stated it has now cleared over $1 billion in debt in the last year, including a full loan repayment of $700 million to Genesis. Commenting on this development, the company’s CEO, Barry Silbert, has expressed much relief on X as he claims the venture firm faced significant obstacles in achieving such a feat.
Silbert said:
I’m happy to share that @DCGco completed a full paydown of the money borrowed from Genesis. We have now repaid over $1 bn of debt, including this ~$700 mm, despite the headwinds faced by the industry. I’m excited about the industry’s next chapter and DCG’s leadership role in it.
DCG’s loan repayment to Genesis is particularly significant due to the relationship between both companies, a previous lawsuit, and the bankruptcy status of GGC.
In September 2023, Genesis charged DCG to court over non-payment of four loans valued at $500 million. The defunct lender had also launched a separate lawsuit looking to recover 4,550 Bitcoin, worth $117 million, from DCG-affiliated company Digital Currency Group International Investments (DCIG).
Following negotiations between both parties, DCG agreed on a repayment structure with Genesis in November to pay an immediate amount of $200 million. The repayment company also made a promise to have cleared all outstanding loans by April 2024 as it has now done.
DCG Retains Ownership Stake In Genesis
In other news, Digital Currency Group will also keep its current ownership stake in Genesis until the finalization of the crypto lender’s bankruptcy process. According to a court order, Digital Currency Group keeping its ownership shares in Genesis at 80% or above will allow the company to remain within DCG’s tax-consolidated group.
This arrangement protects Genesis against potential federal net operating loss carryforward (NOLs) of $700 million. These potential tax savings are critical to Genesis’s financial position as the crypto firm navigates through its bankruptcy proceedings.
Genesis filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2023 following losses from the collapses of the FTX exchange and Three Arrows Capital. The company owes over $3.5 billion to numerous creditors, most notably the Gemini exchange.