Market Maker B2C2 Offers to Buy Loans From Genesis Crypto-Lending Unit

Prominent crypto market maker B2C2 has offered to purchase loans from the suddenly-struggling crypto financial firm Genesis.

News broke early Wednesday that the lending arm of Genesis was pausing redemptions and new loan originations, citing the impact on operations of the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto exchange FTX. (Genesis is owned by CoinDesk parent Digital Currency Group.)

“Throughout the current crypto market turmoil, B2C2 has provided critical liquidity and support to our global client base," a B2C2 spokesperson told CoinDesk in an email. "We have continued to price, trade and settle across all our products.”

The spokesperson continued: “The company is in a position to support the wider market by offering to work with Genesis and their counterparties to novate existing loans at Genesis Global Capital to B2C2. Loans will have to fall within our established risk management framework to qualify.”

B2C2 founder and director Max Boonen originally tweeted the offer as a way of helping to “alleviate the current liquidity shortfall.”

“I didn't have Genesis on my bingo card. Wow. That leaves very few players in the OTC market,” he wrote. OTC stands for "over-the-counter," a reference to the marketplace that occurs off exchanges, where deals and trades are negotiated directly between traders.

Asked if the tweet was a formal offer, Boonen told CoinDesk in a direct message that "it's a desire to open talks." The offer wouldn't include all of the loans. "In fact, they likely need a small % of their total book to become liquid," he wrote.

Last week, B2C2 announced that group CEO Phillip Gillespie had departed and was replaced by Nicola White, who joined the firm last year from Citadel Securities.

Read more: Crypto Investment Firm DCG Gives $140M Equity Infusion to Trading Firm Genesis