$1.5 Billion: Gemini vs DCG
$500M Whale Wallets | Maple Lending Arm
Marco Manoppo & Karon Pangestu
July 05, 2023
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Good Morning,
Welcome back from the 4th celebration. The crypto markets are relatively flat but institutional fund flows are showing the investors’ appetite are starting to return. Let’s see what the news cycle has for us this week.
In Today's Email:
What Matters: Gemini demands $1.5B from DCG đź’µ
Case Study: Too much infrastructure? 🤔
Governance & Features: Maple lending arm 🤝
Narratives: With Celsius altcoins hitting the market, the play is still the same — long ETH, BTC, and liquid staking; short high emission altcoins
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WHAT MATTERS
Gemini's Demands $1.5B From DCG
State of play: Gemini exchange has given Digital Currency Group (DCG), a "final offer" to repay a debt of $1.47 billion or face potential legal action.
This offer aims to resolve extended discussions and mediation by proposing a plan in forbearance payments and new loans.
The final offer deadline set for 4 pm ET on July 6.
Gemini has requested the Genesis Special Committee to file a turnover motion by July 7, potentially putting DCG in default, and demanded the immediate payment of $630M owed to creditors and Earn users.
DCG missed the $630M payment that was due in May. As part of the offer, a payment of $275M should be made by July 21.
The letter alleges Silbert, DCG, and Genesis deliberately provided false information to creditors, Earn users, and Gemini on the absorption of the $1.2B debt resulting from the collapse of 3AC.
Why it matters: Over $1.2B of 323,000 Earn users’ assets are trapped in this case.
Both Gemini and DCG are prominent players in the crypto space. Their disputes will impact not just Earn users but also the broader ecosystem.
For builders and investors: If any of the legal action falls to the side of mandating DCG to pay, it probably means that there will be some selling pressure on the market.
However, this flow of capital might be balanced out by the excitement surrounding a spot Bitcoin ETF.
CASE STUDY
Too Much Crypto Infrastructure Projects?
Credits to Ann for the original article.
State of play: Ann argues that the crypto space is overly focused on infrastructure rather than developing immediately usable and mass market crypto apps.
Ann states that infrastructure is the kind of project that VCs love to fund the most.
Investors find longer-term infrastructure projects more profitable due to sustained momentum and optimistic outlook — keeping the “hopium” for much longer.
The hindrance to mass adoption is often attributed to factors like regulation — but the real challenge lies in developing a crypto service that the general public finds appealing and useful.
Our take: Creating a mass market crypto-powered app that people want is challenging because there will be “movements of assets” — which are highly regulated by different entities around the world.
The key is to understand where you can create value, navigate the regulatory environment, and generate real PMF without rushing to create your tokens.
Take a peek at our new referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 100 smart crypto investors' wallet addresses 👇
INSIGHTS
Tracking Influencers’ Wallets
@belizardd is tracking crypto influencers’ and notable founders wallets worth $500M+ collectively. Here is the list of 14 crypto influencers’ wallets:
Andrew Kang - Mechanism Capital - Address: 0xe8c19db00287e3536075114b2576c70773e039bd.
Arthur Hayes - BitMEX Founder - Address: 0x534a0076fb7c2b1f83fa21497429ad7ad3bd7587.
Tetranode - DeFi Whale - Address: 0x9c5083dd4838e120dbeac44c052179692aa5dac5.
Alex Svanevik - Nansen CEO - Address: 0xc006544b93e86e8999623c1d12d2e352c61c8123.
Vitalik Buterin - Ethereum Founder - Address: 0xd8da6bf26964af9d7eed9e03e53415d37aa96045.
Kain Warwick - Synthetix Founder - Address: 0x27cc4d6bc95b55a3a981bf1f1c7261cda7bb0931.
Michael Egorov - Curve Finance Founder - Address: 0x7a16ff8270133f063aab6c9977183d9e72835428.
Patricio Worthalter - Early $RPL investor - Address: 0x57757e3d981446d585af0d9ae4d7df6d64647806.
Stani Kulechov - Lens Protocol and Aave Founder - Address: 0xf5fb27b912d987b5b6e02a1b1be0c1f0740e2c6f.
0xSisyphus - Unibot - Address: 0x4dbe965abcb9ebc4c6e9d95aeb631e5b58e70d5b.
Degenspartan - The Top G - Address: 0x4e60be84870fe6ae350b563a121042396abe1eaf.
Bankless - Address: 0x844e211e291077b11221c0f18615a64f2ff19c26.
Justin Sun - Tron Founder - Address: 0x3ddfa8ec3052539b6c9549f12cea2c295cff5296.
RuneKek - MakerDAO Founder - Address: 0x0f89d54b02ca570de82f770d33c7b7cf7b3c3394.
FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE
Maple Finance New Lending Arm
Maple Finance launches its new lending arm, Maple Direct. It aims to meet the growing institutional demand for a trusted direct lending desk in crypto.
Maple has overseen $2B in loan originations, grown to hold a 60% market share of institutional lending on-chain, and is trusted by over 1800 institutional asset allocators.
Set to launch in July, the team will issue bespoke loans to web3 businesses across sectors with outside capital from institutional allocators across the globe.
Maple loans will be over collateralized and secured by BTC, ETH, and staked ETH collateral.
Why it matters: Crypto needs a sophisticated debt market to reach more scale and facilitate the growth of crypto economy.
Other notable feature updates:
QUICK BITES
Gemini demands $1.47 billion payment from DCG
BlackRock refiles Bitcoin ETF, naming Coinbase.
Singapore MAS orders crypto firms to keep client funds in a trust.
Hong Kong urged to issue USD stablecoin.
Voyager creditors billed $5.1M for recent legal services.
Ethereum community proposes new standard to mitigate DeFi hacks.
UK regulator issues compliance deadline for crypto promotions.
Coinbase shares surge after wide range of ETF partnerships revealed.
HK sets up web3 task force.
MEME & NOTEWORTHY READS
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