Three Arrows owes biggest creditor Digital Currency Group US$1.2b

    • The full extent of the impact of Three Arrows' implosion on the industry is starting to emerge as it undergoes a liquidation process ordered by a British Virgin Islands court.
    • The full extent of the impact of Three Arrows' implosion on the industry is starting to emerge as it undergoes a liquidation process ordered by a British Virgin Islands court. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
    Published Tue, Jul 19, 2022 · 07:48 AM

    A CREDITOR list of bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital puts the interconnected nature of the industry on display, with lenders ranging from some of the biggest digital-asset firms to the wife of co-founder Kyle Davies.

    At the top is Digital Currency Group (DCG), the parent company of crypto brokerage Genesis, which filed a US$1.2 billion claim against Three Arrows, according to people familiar with the matter who reviewed a court filing.

    Chen Kaili Kelly, the wife of Davies, also filed a claim of about US$66 million, the filing shows. And co-founder Zhu Su himself submitted a US$5 million claim. It's not immediately clear how Three Arrows was structured to allow Zhu to be a creditor.

    The full extent of the impact of Three Arrows' implosion on the industry is starting to emerge as it undergoes a liquidation process ordered by a British Virgin Islands court. Celsius Network and Voyager Digital, which both filed for bankruptcy in recent weeks, are among other creditors taking a hit from Three Arrows. Deribit, a crypto derivatives exchange, has a US$80 million claim filed under the entity name DRB Panama.

    Three Arrows has become emblematic of the industry's excesses during last year's bull run, when firms built up leverage that hobbled them as the market turned. Its downfall has rippled through the digital asset industry, leading to some, such as BlockFi, seeking rescue finding, while others filed for bankruptcy protections.

    The whereabouts of co-founders Su and Davies are still unknown, liquidators have said. Davies told the Wall Street Journal earlier that the fund had roughly US$3 billion in assets under management in April before crypto markets crashed.

    Genesis had earlier disclosed that it was exposed to Three Arrows, and a Jul 9 filing in Singapore’s high court lists a US$2.36 billion loan to the fund from Genesis Asia-Pacific. Genesis sold collateral and hedged its downside once Three Arrows failed to meet a margin call, Michael Moro, chief executive officer of Genesis, said in a series of tweets this month, without specifying the hedging strategy it employed.

    The loans to Three Arrows had a weighted-average margin requirement of over 80 per cent, he said, without disclosing the total loan amount or the economic loss. DCG has since assumed some of these liabilities.

    "Both the DCG and Genesis balance sheets remain strong. With no remaining exposure to Three Arrows Capital, Genesis continues to be well-capitalised and its operations are business as usual," a spokesperson for DCG said in an emailed statement. BLOOMBERG

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