Here are the companies that have collapsed so far
Top line
Last year’s crypto crash continues into 2023, as a number of top crypto companies collapse or suspend operations – here’s a look at the damage so far.
Keywords
January 20: Genesis, one of the leading cryptocurrency lenders, announces that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, another victim of the FTX collapse.
December 21: Core Scientific, one of the largest publicly traded bitcoin mining companies, filed for bankruptcy with liabilities as high as $1.3 billion across its 1,000-5,000 creditors, although it continues mining operations.
November 28: BlockFi, another top cryptocurrency lender, is filing for bankruptcy in the wake of the collapse of FTX, with which it had major financial ties, listing $1.3 billion in debt and shutting down operations.
November 11th: FTX, a top exchange trading platform by volume that evolved into more of an exchange with retail investors able to trade crypto derivatives, announced it was going bankrupt, sending shockwaves through an already damaged crypto industry with liabilities reaching as much as 9 billion while CEO Sam Bankman-Fried faces criminal charges.
August 9: Hodlnaut, a Singapore-based crypto lender, halts withdrawals, token swaps and deposits citing “market conditions”, and several days later files an application for creditor protection with the Singapore High Court.
July 5: Voyager Digital, a crypto broker, files for Chapter 11 following a $660 million default by Three Arrows Capital, a crypto hedge fund, which halted withdrawals days before going bankrupt, and now owes $1.3 billion across its 100,000 creditors.
July 5: Three Arrows Capital (3AC), a Singapore-based crypto hedge fund that manages close to $10 billion in assets, is filing for Chapter 15 bankruptcy to seek protection from creditors following the collapse of popular cryptocurrency TerraUSD, in which 3AC had a significant investment.
May 12: TerraLabs, a popular blockchain with its cryptocurrency TerraUSD (UST) pegged to the US dollar, halts operations as the cryptocurrency falls to 35 cents and its companion token LUNA – intended to stabilize UST’s price – falls from $80 to below 10 cents, triggering a crypto. meltdown, wiping out $1 trillion in assets as founder Do Kwon faced an arrest warrant from South Korean officials.
Key background
The crypto industry had been a wild west and endured various crashes since the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), was invented in 2008. Most of the crashes all go back to Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency to date. In 2011, Bitcoin fell from $32 to $0.01 after Mt. Gox, then the leading crypto exchange, disclosed a security breach that resulted in the theft of 850,000 BTC. From 2013 to 2015, Bitcoin again experienced losses, going from $1,000 to $170 in just two years after Mt. Gox stopped withdrawals in 2014 and US financial authorities began to question Bitcoin and wanted to start regulation.
Further reading
Crypto Crash Intensifies Amid Industry ‘White Knight’ Bankman-Fried (Forbes)
Crypto market crosses $1 trillion for first time in months as Bitcoin recovers from FTX-fueled crash (Forbes)
Follow me on Twitter. Send me a safe tip.
