Genesis Block
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Genesis Block was a Hong Kong cryptocurrency retail service co-founded by Clement Ip with CEO Wincent Hung. It provided over-the-counter (OTC) trading services to retail customers and at one point operated a network of 29 Bitcoin ATMs in Hong Kong, which it later sold to a third party. In December 2022 the company announced it would cease trading and shutter its operations, closing its OTC trading portal on December 10.
02 / Genesis Block FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Genesis Block was brought down by the FTX collapse. With crypto counterparties shutting down in succession and no way to know who would fail next, the company chose to cease trading and close out all its positions to regain liquidity. It had already been scaling back its Hong Kong business earlier in the year before the FTX fallout delivered the final blow.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Shutdown
Genesis Block announced it would cease trading and shutter operations amid the FTX fallout, closing its OTC online trading portal on December 10, 2022 and asking customers to withdraw their funds.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Genesis Block was founded in Hong Kong as a crypto retail service offering OTC trading and, at its peak, a 29-location Bitcoin ATM network.
- 02
The company sold its Bitcoin ATM network to a third party and began winding down its Hong Kong business during 2022.
- 03
In November 2022 FTX collapsed, triggering cascading counterparty failures across the crypto industry.
- 04
Genesis Block announced it would cease trading and shutter operations, closing its OTC portal on December 10, 2022.
- 05
Customers were asked to withdraw their remaining funds; no loss amount is recorded.