Genesis Block, a Honk Kong based cryptocurrency retail service, has told its customers it will be closing its over-the-counter trading portal on the 10th of December 2023. This is being seen as part of the wider fallout from FTX’s collapse and proceeding bankruptcy filing last week.
In an email to customers, Genesis Block requested individuals withdraw all their funds, and that they will not be accepting new customers.
Chief executive of Genesis Block Wincent Hung, told Reuters: “We have ceased trading, as we don't know which counterparties would fail next, so we would rather close out all our positions to regain some of our liquidity.”
An anonymous source told Reuters that one Genesis Block official was previously a director at FTX Hong Kong, and resigned from the directorship this month. However, the company was already scaling down its Hong Kong business prior to the FTX collapse.
The past 24 hours have continued to deliver updates and drama from FTX's wider fallout. A report by the firm's new CEO John Ray, who previously took control of Enron after its collapse, declared in the FTX’s chapter 11 court filings that he has never "seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information.”
This latest update comes after a number of dramatic FTX reports, including Binance’s move to relaunch its bid for crypto lender Voyager (which FTX had previously won bids on), and accusations from FTX that the government of the Bahamas is directing unauthorised access to FTX systems to withdraw assets after having filed bankruptcy.