Cryptocurrency trading firm Genesis Block has halted its over-the-counter trading services, citing contagion from bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.
“We have ceased trading, as we don’t know which counterparties would fail next, so we would rather close out all our positions to regain some of our liquidity,” chief executive Wincent Hung told the Reuters News Agency in an interview.
Over-the-counter trading, also known as off-exchange trading, is done directly between two parties without the involvement of an exchange.
Genesis Block has asked all of its customers to withdraw their funds and the company will not accept any new customers.
Based in Hong Kong, Genesis Block was, until now, Asia’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) ATM operator and one of the region’s biggest crypto trading firms.
Genesis Block is the latest crypto firm to be impacted by the bankruptcy of FTX. On November 11, FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy citing $8 billion U.S. in losses and as many as one million creditors.
The failure of FTX has sparked contagion across the global cryptocurrency industry. Earlier this week, crypto lender Genesis Global Capital announced that it was halting all customer withdrawals due to the fallout from the FTX failure.
Other cryptocurrency firms are expected to fail in the coming days and weeks as the extent of FTX’s implosion becomes clearer, say analysts.
