Digital Currency Group, or DCG, is under investigation by the United States Department of Justice’s Eastern District of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The authorities are digging into internal transfers between DCG and its subsidiary crypto lending firm Genesis Global Capital, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors have already requested interviews and documents from both companies, while the SEC is running a similar early-stage inquiry.
Genesis is one of the companies affected by the contagious wave following the collapse of FTX in November. According to the firm’s disclosure on Nov. 10, it has $175 million locked up in an FTX trading account. Genesis halted withdrawals on Nov. 16 due to liquidity issues and has engaged with investment bank Moelis & Company to assist with restructuring.
Genesis owes $900 million to the crypto exchange Gemini. They operated together a product called Gemini Earn, which allows crypto investors to earn 8% interest on their crypto loans. Gemini claims that DCG failed to repay Genesis, leading to the failure of payments to Gemini’s clients.
Among other DCG subsidiaries are Grayscale Investments, media outlet CoinDesk, crypto exchange Luno and Bitcoin mining company Foundry. It was reported that most of Grayscale’s trust funds are trading at a discount, with Ethereum Classic Trust trading at the deepest discount of 77% on Jan. 4, followed by Litecoin Trust at 65% and Bitcoin Cash Trust at 57%.
