Last year’s crypto crash continues into 2023, as several top crypto companies collapse or pause their business—here’s a look at that damage so far.
January 20: Genesis, one of the top leading cryptocurrency lenders, announces it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, another casualty 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 US$1.3 billion across its 1,000-5,000 creditors, though it continues its mining operations.
November 28: BlockFi, another top cryptocurrency lender, files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of the collapse of FTX, with which it had significant financial ties, lists US$1.3 billion in liabilities and ceases operation.
November 11: FTX, a top exchange trading platform by volume that evolved into more than an exchange market with retail investors able to trade crypto derivatives, announced it was filling for bankruptcy, sending shockwaves to an already damaged crypto industry with its liabilities reaching as much as US$9 billion while its CEO Sam Bankman-Fried faces criminal charges.
August 9: Hodlnaut, a Singapore-based crypto lender, pauses its withdrawal, token swaps and deposits citing “market conditions,” and several days later files an application seeking creditor protection with the Singapore High Court.
July 5: Voyager Digital, a crypto broker, files for Chapter 11 following a US$660 million default from Three Arrows Capital, a crypto hedge fund, pausing withdrawals days before going bankrupt, and now owes US$1.3 billion across its 100,000 creditors.
July 5: Three Arrows Capital (3AC), a Singapore-based crypto hedge fund managing close to $10 billion in assets, files 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 by the U.S. dollar, pauses operations as the cryptocurrency drops to US35 cents and its companion token LUNA—meant to stabilize UST’s price—falls from US$80 to below 10 cents, triggering a crypto meltdown and wiping out US$1 trillion in assets as its founder Do Kwon faced an arrest warrant by South Korean officials.
The crypto industry has been a wild west and endured various crashes since the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), was invented in 2008. Most crashes go back to Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency to date. In 2011, Bitcoin plummeted from US$32 to US$0.01 after Mt. Gox, and 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 and went from US$1,000 to US$170 in just two years, following Mt. Gox pausing withdrawals in 2014 and U.S. financial authorities beginning to question Bitcoin and looking to begin regulation.
This article was first published on forbes.com