Stellar Foundation Nicked by Genesis Bankruptcy With $13M Claim

Stellar Development Foundation, a nonprofit organization set up to promote growth on the Stellar blockchain, was listed among the largest creditors of Genesis, the beleaguered crypto lending giant that filed for bankruptcy protection on Thursday.

The foundation has a claim for $13 million against Genesis, according to bankruptcy filings.

In a statement to CoinDesk, the foundation confirmed it loaned around $13 million to Genesis in 2022 but called the sum “immaterial” in relation to the rest of its treasury.

“The outstanding claim represents an immaterial portion of our overall treasury and does not impact our operations in any way,” according to a Stellar Development Foundation representative.

According to its website, the “Stellar Development Foundation currently holds 30 billion XLM to be used for promoting and enhancing Stellar.” At current prices, Stellar’s holdings of its native XLM token place the paper value of its treasury above $200 million.

Though the foundation claims it has weathered the Genesis fiasco relatively unscathed, the entanglement of an ecosystem fund’s assets with the over-the-counter crypto lending desk underscores just how widespread the contagion of the Genesis fallout might be.

Also among the largest Genesis creditors revealed in Thursday’s bankruptcy filings were pension funds of Fairfax County, Virginia, and MoonAlpha Finance, the team behind Babel Finance, which is owed $150 million.

Genesis is owned by the crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG), which also owns CoinDesk.

According to Genesis’s bankruptcy filings, it owes $3.5 billion to its top 50 creditors, including the Stellar Development Foundation.