Genesis Parts Ways With Sales Staffers, Said To Spell More Bad Tidings

The crypto brokerage has recently consulted restructuring specialists on the possibility of spinning out its troubled lending arm

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by Axel Rangel modified by Blockworks

share

There’s no end in sight for Genesis’ prickly problems as executives exhaust avenues to keep the crypto company above water.

Among the 30% of firm-wide employees Genesis cut on Thursday was the majority of its institutional sales team, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The move spells additional trouble, the sources said, for the dwindling prospects of reviving the crypto brokerage’s beset core business lines. An additional two sources detailed those attempts. 

A scant five sales staffers remain.

The remaining employees mark a fall from a recent peak of about a dozen business development pros. And that’s not the only fresh Genesis restructuring in the works: The firm has deliberated the viability of spinning out its lending unit, sources said. 

Sales employees sticking around include Hanson Birringer, a vice president of institutional sales; Josh Barkhordar, head of sales for the Americas; and an unspecified junior sales analyst. 

Leon Marshall, Genesis’ veteran global head of sales, was among those laid off, a source said, Marshall, who joined Genesis at the beginning of 2019, per LinkedIn, orchestrated previous efforts to expand the company’s institutional pipeline of prospective clients. And those initiatives, for a spell, were successful as the company became a dominant force among top crypto credit players before its recent series of unfortunate events. 

Sources categorized his departure as a notable blow. Before joining Genesis, Marshall headed research for CryptoCompare. He’s also spent time on the investment side of Wall Street, including a stint as a portfolio manager with Apollo Global — which built out its own crypto capabilities last year. Other senior staffers reporting to Marshall were let go, too.

Sales staffers among first to go

The move reflects a prevalent trend in crypto markets these days as salespeople have far fewer calls to make, a direct consequence of institutional investors pressing pause on voluminous digital asset trades as they wait out the bear market’s turbulence. 

A Genesis spokesperson in a statement referred to “unprecedented industry challenges” in detailing the firm’s thinking behind its 30% reduction. 

“Genesis has made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount globally,” the spokesperson said. “These measures are part of our ongoing efforts to move our business forward.”

Concentrating on cutting pricey vets is one general and viable mechanism to preserve crucial cash flows. Even so, there was not a top-down focus on parting ways with senior employees, per one source.

The company has also shuttered its wealth management division, The Information first reported. Two sources confirmed the closure to Blockworks. 

Marshall did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokesperson for Genesis pointed to the company’s previous statements and declined an additional request for comment. Sources were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive business dealings. 

In the cards a lending spinout 

Genesis’ top brass, meanwhile, have been weighing the prospects — and the feasibility — of substantially overhauling its lending unit, hatching a blueprint for doing so that would mark a further escalation of its layoffs this week. The firm, to that end, has been engaged in advanced conversations with Moelis & Company regarding the prospects of spinning out its crypto credit arm.

The traditionally TradFi restructuring specialist Moelis is the boutique investment bank Genesis previously tapped to analyze a broader viable financial path forward. CoinDesk first reported the firm’s most recent round of layoffs. In addition to Moelis, Genesis has engaged additional, albeit unspecified, advisers — some coming about at the bequest of its customers. 

Genesis’ lending arm has been long considered by the institutional investors and service provider counterparties it does business with as the company’s bread-and-butter in terms of its three main business lines: derivatives and spot cryptoasset trading, lending, and crypto custody.

The trading operation is “fully operational and [is] serving our clients’ trading needs as they always have,” according to Derar Islim, its interim chief executive. 

“While we are committed to moving as quickly as possible, this is a very complex process that will take some additional time,” Islim said in a Wednesday statement. “We believe we can arrive at a solution. 

Genesis has made “significant progress in refining” the client-facing parts of its business, Islim said — including cutting costs and “driving efficiencies in all our business lines.”

Genesis in the fourth quarter had about $175 million of customer funds frozen in its primary trading account with Sam Bankman-Fried’s defunct FTX, which did “not impact [the firm’s] market-making activities,” the company said at the time. 

Does DCG owe Genesis $1B+?

Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss in a public Twitter spat has claimed parent company DCG owes his firm nearly $1.7 billion as a result of an outstanding loan. 

Loading Tweet..

DCG CEO Barry Silbert thinks otherwise. 

Loading Tweet..

It’s altogether the latest wrinkle for Genesis, which weathered a rough 2022, including halting withdrawals from its lending arm in November, when representatives blamed the “FTX implosion” in explaining the move. 

Leading up to the decision to freeze customer assets on its lending platform: exposure to now-bankrupt digital assets-focused hedge fund firm Three Arrows Capital (recently hit with two fresh subpoenas); lingering crypto credit contagion from the downfall of Genesis’ peer digital asset lenders earlier in 2022; and challenges in its custodial business as traders in the fourth quarter rushed to yank their cryptoassets off exchanges.

At the same time, on Nov. 10, the investment firm said its capital and outstanding net positions with FTX were “not material” to its business,” adding that the exchange’s demise had “not impeded the full functioning of our trading franchise.”

Less than a week later, Binance founder “Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was already doing due diligence on potentially acquiring Genesis’ voluminous loan book, which had $2.8 billion of active lines of credit open in the fourth quarter. And other market markers followed suit

“In the past two days, we printed record volumes, maintained leading market share, and supported clients with their ongoing derivatives needs,” Genesis said in November. 

The company “claimed to be OK at the time,” a source said.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Featured.png

Research

Helium stands at a pivotal moment in its evolution as a decentralized wireless network, balancing rapid growth, economic restructuring, and global expansion. With accelerated growth in domestic DAUs and Hotspots supporting its network, Helium is leveraging strategic partnerships and innovative proposals to scale internationally. The recent implementation of HIP 138, “Return to HNT,” has unified its token economy under HNT, simplifying participation and strengthening liquidity, while HIP 139’s phase-out of CBRS refocuses efforts on scalable Wi-Fi offload. Meanwhile, governance shifts under HIP 141 raise questions about centralization as Nova Labs consolidates control over the roadmap.

article-image

While the head of Base may support legal sex work, Coinbase policies prohibit said workers from using its exchange.

article-image

EVM bottlenecks fundamentally hold back Ethereum’s scalability

article-image

In 2011, WikiLeaks faced a financial blockade imposed by the US government. It was Bitcoin’s first major test.

article-image

Kado’s founder Emery Andrew spoke to Blockworks about the acquisition and what’s next for the team

article-image

LayerZero’s Bryan Pellegrino chatted with Blockworks about the firm’s next steps and its 10-year runway

article-image

Colosseum co-founder Matty Taylor is seeing “high-performance [Solana] founders showing a lot of interest in private trading technology”