The contagion around FTX’s liquidity crisis triggered a state of panic across the crypto market, leaving investors worried that several large players with ties to FTX and Alameda Research could soon go under.
In a statement on Tuesday, institutional crypto investment firm Genesis sought to put investors at peace, saying they had no exposure to the companies.
“With regard to today’s market events, we have managed our lending book and have no material net credit exposure. In addition, Genesis has no exposure to any tokens issued by centralized exchanges,” tweeted Genesis.
The firm was likely seemingly referring to FTX’s native token, FTT.
Crypto exchange Coinbase issued a similar statement on Tuesday, penned by CFO Alesia Haas, addressing concerns around the exchange’s potential exposure to FTX and the resulting impact on operations.
“Regardless of whether the Binance/FTX transaction completes, we have very little exposure to FTX and we have no exposure to its token, FTT,” she said in a statement.
“Currently we have $15 million worth of deposits on FTX to facilitate business operations and client trades. We have no exposure to Alameda Research, and we have no loans to FTX.”
The Coinbase CFO explained that “there can’t be a ‘bank run’ at Coinbase” because all customer assets are backed 1:1 – something displayed in its audited financial statements.
She added that the crypto exchange is in a strong capital position as it holds the majority of assets in U.S. dollars. Haas said the exchange had $5 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the third quarter.
The possible threat of a contagion effect rippling through the crypto economy is hardly unwarranted. Earlier this year, several large crypto lenders, including Voyager Digital, went bankrupt after crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital defaulted on a $670 million debt obligation.
Ironically, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried held the winning bid for Voyager’s assets at its bankruptcy auction in September. FTX U.S., which operates as a separate legal entity from its off-shore parent FTX, bid $1.42 billion for Voyager’s assets.
If Binance goes ahead with its proposed acquisition of FTX, it will not acquire FTX U.S. Withdrawals on the U.S.-based FTX counterpart have not been impacted by recent market events, Bankman-Fried said on Tuesday.