HUOBI EXCHANGE

Huobi recently experienced a bank run after the exchange announced that it will be laying off staff and rumors of insolvency started to run rampant. Huobi was sold a firm affiliated with Tron Founder Justin Sun last Autumn and has been restructuring ever since. So far Huobi has managed to hold up, this appears to be because Justin has been backstopping them with liquidity. It is questionable whether Justin could keep Huobi afloat when he is also supporting the Tron ecosystem with liquidity specifically USDD. It is clear that the crypto exchange industry is consolidating, and it looks like the coin base could be the biggest beneficiary. That is because the exchange settled a pivotal case with the US regulator for $100 million.

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This case also dates back to 2018 and suggests Binance could secure a similar settlement. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Digital Currency Group (DCG). For those unfamiliar, DCG is one of the largest companies in the crypto world. Besides having a stake in many major cryptocurrency companies and projects, DCG owns Genesis trading, Grayscale, Coindesk, and foundering the largest BTC mining pool. Genesis trading provides crypto services to institutions, the firm was forced to short its door in mid-November after it had reviewed that it had $200 million funds stocked of FTX. Genesis has been trying to restructure since that time and it is now reportedly planning to file for bankruptcy.

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This is a problem because Gemini earns users nearly one billion dollars of funds frozen with Genesis. This prompted Gemini exchange Co-founder Cameroon Winklevoss to the public an open letter to DCG CEO Barry Silbert on Twitter essentially accusing him of doing something like FTX and Alameda. Barry claimed the accusation is incorrect, now DCG is being investigated by both the Department of Justice and ECC about its relationship to Genesis. Both regulators are analyzing the transactions between DGC and Genesis to see if there is any commingling of funds.

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As for Grayscale, its crypto trust has continued to deviate from its fair value related to the asset which backed them. The latest was Grayscale Ethereum trust fell almost 60% below the value of the ETH backing it. This deviation occurs because shares of trust can be easily issued or redeemed. Valkyrie which is a Grayscale competitor offered to take over Grayscale Bitcoin trust. Valkyrie will allow investors to access BTC backing the GBTC shares which could result in a lot of sale pressure if Grayscale agrees to the offer.

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