Genesis Cleared to Sell $1.3B GBTC Shares, Will BTC Tank?

Bankrupt crypto firm Genesis Global Holdco LLC has been granted approval by the court to roll out its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).

Leverage to Repay Creditors

After several months of lawsuits, Genesis has finally been cleared by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York to sell off its $1.6 billion worth of GBTC. While this may not be how Winklevoss’ Gemini expects the lawsuit to go, it marks a significant milestone for Genesis as it provides an avenue for the firm to meet its obligation to creditors. 

For context, Gemini was previously running an earning program that allowed investors to systematically lend their assets to Genesis in a tri-party arrangement. These investors were assured of profit at the end of an agreed period. Genesis’ way of utilizing the capital was by further lending it as loans to high-profile companies.

Based on Genesis’s agreement with Gemini, about 60 million GBTC shares were pledged as collateral to Gemini Earn shareholders. In the long run, Genesis failed to hold up its own end of the contract including refusing to provide interest/profit to investors in the earning program. Consequently, Gemini tried to lay claim to the GBTC meant for Genesis’ collateral.

Thereafter, Gemini sued its former business partner Genesis in October 2023 over the same GBTC shares. According to Gemini, the GBTC shares would be enough to completely secure and satisfy the claims of all investors in the Earn program who were affected when Genesis exchange halted withdrawals on its platform in 2022. 

Court Caught Between Genesis and Gemini

Gemini requested that the court rule that Genesis no longer has control over the GBTC shares and therefore, should not be used to repay any of Genesis’s creditors lined up in its bankruptcy proceedings. On the other hand, Genesis submitted a request to the court for permission to sell the $1.6 billion worth of trust assets.

The new ruling suggests that Gemini’s argument was not strong enough to convince the bankruptcy court to accept its motion on the GBTC shares. As it stands, Genesis gets to convert the shares into Bitcoin or even cash and then proceeds to repay clients who lent it crypto. 

Bitcoin price has been demonstrating a positive momentum in the last few days, fueled by some factors including the large flows into the spot Bitcoin ETF market as well as the preparation for the mid-April Bitcoin halving event. However, the news about the sales of GBTC may derail the momentum in the price of the coin. 

The sell-off might bring to life the Grayscale outflow saga that stirred a market-wide depression in the early days of the spot Bitcoin ETF debut. At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $51,688.40 with a 6.35% increase in the last 24 hours.