DCG losses top $1B on the back of 3AC collapse in 2022

Cryptocurrency venture capital conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG) has reported losses of over $1 billion in 2022 due largely to the contagion relating tocollapse of crypto hedge fund, Three Arrows Capital (3AC).

DCG reportedly lost $1.1 billion last year, according to its Q4 2022 investor report, and said the results “reflect the impact of the Three Arrow Capital default upon Genesis” along with the “negative impact” from falling crypto prices.

Genesis is the lending arm of DCG, the firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late January. Genesis is 3AC’s largest creditor as the company loaned the now-bankrupt hedge fund $2.36 billion, 3AC filed for bankruptcy in July 2022.

DCG’s fourth-quarter losses came to $24 million while revenues came in at$143 million.

Full-year 2022 revenues for DCG came in at $719 million. The firm held total assets of $5.3 billion with cash and liquid holdings of $262 million and investments — such as shares in its Grayscale trusts — amounted to $670 million.

The remaining assets were held by divisions of its asset management subsidiary Grayscale and DCG’s Bitcoin (BTC) mining business Foundry Digital.

Its equity valuation came in at $2.2 billion with a price per share of $27.93 which the report said was “generally consistent with the sector’s 75%-85% decline in equity values over the same period.”

It’s a significant decline from just over a year ago, when DCG declared on Nov. 1, 2021, that its valuation was more than $10 billion following the sale of $700 million worth of shares to companies like Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company.

However, the company said it “hit a milestone” with the restructuring of Genesis.

The agreement proposed earlier in February would see DCG contribute its equity share in Genesis’ trading entity and bring all Genesis entities under the same holding company and see its trading entity sold off.

DCG would also exchange an existing $1.1 billion promissory note due in 2032 for convertible preferred stock. Its existing 2023 term loans with an aggregate value of $526 million would also be refinanced and made payable to creditors.

A Genesis creditor said the plan “has a recovery rate of approximately $0.80 per dollar deposited, with a path to $1.00” for those owed money by the firm.