In August 2023, Gopax, a Binance-owned top-five South Korean cryptocurrency exchange by market share, allegedly sold its Genesis creditor claims for half their face value.
Hankyung, a local news agency, and Korea Economic Daily reported on May 27 that Gopax owes its consumers a total of 70 billion South Korean won ($51.4 million) for exposure to the defunct institutional cryptocurrency lending firm Genesis Global, which ceased operations in November 2022. According to reports, Gopax has distributed 50% of that sum to its subscribers.
Nevertheless, according to reports, the value of the remaining unpaid digital assets has increased from $35 billion at the peak of the cryptocurrency market in November 2022 to a reported 100 billion won for $69,000 per Bitcoin. The escalation of debt obligations has placed Gopax in a “state of complete capital impairment,” according to a March report by the Korean Times.
As the proprietor of Gopax’s cryptocurrency custody service GoFi, Genesis ceased withdrawals in response to a $1.2-billion exposure to the doomed Singaporean hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. Korean Economic Daily consulted a source who stated:
“We paid with Bitcoin obtained by selling the Genesis claim at a low price to a third party, and we are delaying payment of the remaining 50% of the damage, saying we will pay it after the acquisition of Gopax is completed.”
Without disclosing the terms of the transaction, Binance acquired a “significant” equity stake in Gopax in February 2023, thereby reestablishing the cryptocurrency exchange’s presence on the South Korean market.
A lawsuit filed against Binance by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on June 7, 2023, halted the acquisition and prompted the Financial Service Committee of South Korea to review the transaction.
Genesis obtained authorization from U.S. bankruptcy courts earlier this month to return cash and cryptocurrency to its creditors for $3 billion. In opposition to Digital Currency Group’s (DCG), the parent company of Genesis, contention that its insolvent subsidiary ought to reimburse its customers and creditors to the extent of the crypto assets’ value, presiding judge Sean Lane dismissed the objection. As a result, DCG cannot recuperate from Genesis’ bankruptcy proceedings.
