What Happened: Kyle Davies and Su Zhu, founders of the now-defunct hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, hope to raise $25 million in seed funding for their new venture “GTX.”
GTX is a crypto exchange, so-named “because G comes after F,” according to the pitch deck.
3AC’s founders are joined by Mark Lamb and Sudhu Arumugam, who are also listed as GTX founders. Lamb and Arumugam founded CoinFLEX, a crypto exchange that filed for restructuring last year.
Are They Serious? As it turns out, yes, very. The new exchange aims to fill the power vacuum left by FTX and dominate the market within 2-3 months of going live. Zhu confirmed the news to blockchain reporter Colin Wu, saying he was “busy building it.”
In a November interview with Bloomberg, Zhu said he was exploring the idea of setting up a new trading entity, but was waiting for more dominoes to fall.
The Market: Everyone who was burned by – as Zhu would put it – the dominoes that fell.
GTX plans to offer a solution for trading claims for users who have funds stuck on FTX, Celsius, BlockFi and even Mt. Gox.
The team estimates a claims market size of $20 billion based on FTX users caught in the bankruptcy proceedings currently selling their claims at 10% of face value for immediate liquidity.
Isn’t 3AC Bankrupt Too? Also, yes. Davies and Zhu were subpoenaed on Twitter earlier this month – a last resort measure employed by 3AC liquidators after several unsuccessful attempts at contacting the founders.
In a Jan. 11 tweet, Davies described himself as one of 3AC’s creditors who are “frustrated with the bankruptcy process.”
Some industry watchers likened this comeback plan to one attempted by bankrupt crypto lender Celsius in September. Celsius is reportedly planning a new company called “Kelvin,” according to a close door meeting transcript shared by Tiffany Fong.
