Genesis–3AC settlement; Binance’s senior counter-terrorism official departs; Coinbase launches corporate-focused on-chain payments protocol; Bitget halts Hong Kong license after OSL stake sale; Commerzbank licensed in Germany, Hex Trust and Crypto.com in Dubai

We’ve gathered the week’s most important crypto-industry news from participants.

Genesis and Three Arrows Capital reach a global settlement

Genesis Global Capital, the lending platform under DCG, has sought court approval of the proposed settlement with collapsed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC).

The parties agreed that claims against the latter would be reduced from $1 billion to $33 million. Paying the amount would satisfy Genesis’s claims.

The lending platform has not recovered from the consequences of the default by 3AC in June and the collapse of FTX in November 2022. If, in the first case, support of $1.1 billion was provided by parent DCG, then in the second case attempts to attract external financing ended unsuccessfully.

In September DCG proposed a new variant for Genesis Global Capital. The document offered unsecured creditors a base recovery of 70–90% of the claim amount.

The agreement is aimed at revising the terms of the $630 million loan between Genesis and DCG.

According to the firm, Gemini Earn users with collateral of about ~$607 million could potentially receive up to 110% of their total claims.

Preliminary agreement between the companies envisaged DCG paying two loans of $328.8 million with a two-year maturity and $830 million with a seven-year horizon — at 70% to 90% of investors’ funds in dollar terms. Some payments were to be in the form of equity in DCG. Creditors called it “unsatisfactory”.

In May, FTX filed a lawsuit against Genesis seeking to recover $3.9 billion. The claims later shrank to $2 billion. Eventually the parties agreed to pay $175 million to Alameda Research.

Binance’s senior counter-terrorism official leaves

Binance’s senior counter-terrorism official Jennifer Hicks has resigned. She has held the post for the past two years.

Since October 7, the crypto exchange closed more than 100 accounts connected to Hamas financing, according to media, at the request of Israeli authorities.

U.S. financial regulators maintain that assets linked to terrorist groups passed through the exchange. In the March CFTC complaint against the exchange it was noted that senior management received information about Hamas transactions in 2019.

According to media, since December 2021 Israeli authorities blocked 189 accounts on Binance, reportedly linked to ISIS and Hamas.

In September, Binance announced the departures of Gleb Kostarev, head of Eastern Europe, and Vladimir Smerkis, head of CIS, from the firm.

Also seeking new roles were Binance’s Asia-Pacific head Leon Fuong, Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillmann, and Chief Legal Officer Han Ng.

Later it emerged that Binance.UK’s head Jonathan Farnell resigned. Earlier in the year,Stephanie Cabossioras, Binance France CEO, left the firm; in June, media reported that the subsidiary had been suspected of illegally providing crypto services and breaching AML obligations.

Coinbase launches corporate-focused on-chain payments protocol

The Bitcoin exchange Coinbase launched Onchain Payment Protocol as part of a broader upgrade to its payments service with a corporate focus.

The service announced in 2018 supports Ethereum, Polygon and Base. It offers instant settlements, low fees and broad asset support to improve payments for merchants and their customers. The updated product automatically converts client crypto into USDC and helps mitigate volatility.

Earlier Coinbase Prime launched a Web3 wallet for institutional and corporate clients.

Bitget abandons Hong Kong license after OSL stake sale

The regulated Hong Kong crypto exchange operatorOSL — BC Technology Group — sold a 30% stake in the platform to Bitget for $90 million. A day earlier, Bitget withdrew its application for a license from the SFC.

In August 2023 HashKey received regulatory approval and launched trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum for the public. Earlier, exchanges Huobi andOKX had filed applications. The HKVAEX platform, operating since December 2022, plans to apply for an SFC license. Media reports say the exchange is founded by Binance.

Commerzbank licensed in Germany; Hex Trust and Crypto.com — in Dubai

Commerzbank received the crypto-custody license from BaFin. The application was submitted in April 2022. The license will enable a broad range of digital asset services.

Dubai’s regulatory authority for virtual assets issued full licenses to the crypto custodian Hex Trust and trading platform Crypto.com.

In July 2023 Binance FZE received a basic operating license. Earlier, licenses to provide crypto services in the emirate were granted to Bitcoin exchanges Huobi, OKX, Blockchain.com.

Also on ForkLog:

• FTX sues Bybit to recover assets worth $953 million.
• Binance and Gulf Energy receive approval to launch an exchange in Thailand.
• Media reports plan for Bithumb to go public.
• OKX will launch L2 network X1 in partnership with Polygon.
• CBOE will launch margined futures for Bitcoin and Ethereum.
• Uzbekistan issues a license to a new crypto custodian.
• Bloomberg: Tether invests $500 million in Bitcoin mining.
• Swan Bitcoin introduces a ban on crypto mixers.
• Disney and Dapper Labs to launch the Pinnacle NFT platform.

What to read this weekend?

As the expected approval of spot Bitcoin- ETF by the SEC looms, consolidation continues in the industry. After BitGo, a custodian, acquired HeightZero, a provider of software for asset managers, news emerged of a new deal: crypto-ETF provider CoinShares obtained an option to acquire Valkyrie Funds.

During the week it was also reported that BlackRock filed for a spot Ethereum-ETF. In early November, CoinShares analysts noted growing asset-manager interest in the second-largest cryptocurrency.