Genesis Q1 2022 Report Reflects Another Strong Quarter Amid Market Uncertainty
29.4.2022 16:15:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Genesis, a digital asset industry pioneer and digital currency prime brokerage, today released its Q1 2022 Market Observations Report, highlighting major trends across institutional digital asset markets. The report provides a breakdown of Genesis’ lending, derivatives, spot, and custody activities across Q1 2022, along with in-depth insight from the Genesis lending and derivatives desks on trends such as the growing adoption of permissioned DeFi protocols, the gradual institutionalization in debt markets and the continued growing interest from the traditional financial community in stablecoin derivatives.
The first quarter was characterized by Genesis’ notable growth across most of its operations – including another record quarter in derivatives trading activity – even against the backdrop of lower overall crypto market volumes and high levels of uncertainty throughout most asset types. Highlights during the quarter include the following:
- In Q1 2022, the USD amount of active loans outstanding grew to $14.6 billion against declining prices, a level 17% higher than at the end of the previous quarter, and 62% higher than at the end of Q1 2021.
- As of March 31, cumulative loan originations had reached $195 billion.
- The notional volume traded by the derivatives desk in Q1 reached $27.8 billion, up 33% from Q4, inclusive of negotiated block- and exchange- traded futures.
- Assets under custody increased by 23% over Q1.
- The USD volume of assets moved from Genesis Custody to the Genesis trading or lending desks increased by 141% vs Q4 2022.
- Genesis’ headcount increased 22% over the quarter to reach 208 employees across three continents.
“Institutions continue to develop their crypto strategies and strengthen their understanding of this industry, even amid the market uncertainty that has marked the start to this year,” said Michael Moro, CEO of Genesis. “As we continue to deepen engagement with our clients across Genesis’ wide range of products, we are committed to further expanding our market share and delivering innovative strategies for clients to access this growing asset class.”
Derivatives and Spot Trading
Genesis saw another record quarter in derivatives trading activity, with over $27.8 billion in notional value traded globally. This figure includes bilateral OTC, negotiated block futures trades and exchange-traded volumes, representing 33% quarter-on-quarter growth. In Q1, Genesis was also #1 in market share for blocked BTC and ETH Deribit-cleared derivatives via Paradigm with over $6.6 billion transacted1. The firm also printed the first ever ETH and BTC Micro options trades on the CME in March. Additionally, the Genesis derivatives desk traded 61 different assets in the first quarter, with $4.7 billion notional traded in altcoin derivatives – Genesis’ highest quarterly total yet as it continues to prove its ability to help clients hedge and take directional positions in even the most esoteric of markets.
The Genesis spot desk traded over $11.4 billion in volume in Q1, with the continuing trend toward greater diversification of assets. BTC comprised 48% of the traded volume, in line with last quarter, while ETH saw a drop from 33% to 23% of total traded volume in Q1. The Genesis spot desk also saw a notable increase in activity across assets such as LUNA, SOL, AVAX, ZEC, LINK, ATOM and GALA.
Crypto Lending
Despite a market environment faced with many uncertainties, as valuations across all crypto assets nearly halved from November peaks, the Genesis lending desk originated over $44.3 billion in loans in Q1 2022, bringing cumulative originations since inception in March 2018 to $195 billion. Active loans outstanding also climbed to $14.6 billion to close the quarter, up 17% from the end of 2021.
The strong level of activity Genesis saw in Q1 – despite the weak market environment – was mainly due to organic volume driven by new institutions entering the industry and by increasing demand for cash loans, which allowed Genesis to capitalize on its core competitive strengths as a leading digital asset prime broker.
Custody
Assets under custody increased by 23% quarter-on-quarter, while the USD volume of assets moved from Genesis Custody to the Genesis trading or lending desks increased by 141% over the same period. This comes as Genesis continues to integrate its lending and trading desks more tightly into its SOC 2 Type 1-audited and FCA-registered custodian.
The number of customers onboarded to Genesis Custody also increased by 36% over the quarter, driven mainly by large public and private mining companies, venture capital firms and other traditional asset managers on a global level, following Genesis’ FCA registration and the roll out of its 24/5 support.
The Genesis Q1 2022 Market Observations Report provides a comprehensive look into key market activity through insights from the firm’s spot trading, derivatives trading, lending, custody, treasury and prime brokerage businesses. To read the full Q1 2022 Market Observations Report, click here.
About Genesis
Genesis is a full-service digital currency prime brokerage providing a single point of access for select qualified individuals and global institutional investors. Genesis combines unrivaled operational excellence, a seamless user experience, and best-in-class client service to provide the full suite of services global investors require to manage their digital asset portfolios.
The firm offers sophisticated market participants a fully integrated platform to trade, borrow, lend, and custody digital assets, creating new opportunities for yield while increasing capital efficiency for counterparties.
Genesis is a wholly owned subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG), one of the largest private investors in blockchain and digital asset companies.
For more information on Genesis, please visit genesistrading.com and follow @GenesisTrading on Twitter.
____________________________
1 Per Paradigm statistics as of April 28, 2022
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220429005107/en/
Contact information
Marc Yaklofsky
press@genesistrading.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Multiple Industry Honors Reinforce CSG/Netcracker Leadership in Customer Journey Orchestration and AI Innovation24.9.2026 18:05:00 EEST | Press release
The next phase of customer experience hinges on how well brands turn customer data into relevant communications, real-time action, and responsible, proven AI use. CSG® and Netcracker Technology today announced that CSG has been named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Customer Journey Orchestration Platforms, Q3 2026, with the highest possible scores in 19 of 23 Forrester Wave™ criteria. CSG Xponent, a best-in-class customer engagement platform, helps brands land timelier, more relevant communications that drive customer action, secure loyalty, and bolster measurable business results. The Forrester Wave™: Customer Journey Orchestration Platforms states that, “CSG earns superior scores across the core journey intelligence and orchestration capabilities that define this market. Its excellent journey simulation, predictive intelligence, and decisioning capabilities help organizations evaluate likely outcomes before introducing changes into live journeys, improving decision confidence and re
Vasion Ⓡ Enhances Global Partner Program to Accelerate AI-Powered Automation24.9.2026 17:05:00 EEST | Press release
VasionⓇ, the Intelligent Print Automation platform trusted by more than 14,000 organizations worldwide, today unveiled a comprehensive refresh of its Global Partner Program. The program delivers the resources partners expect from Vasion: always-on incentives, structured onboarding, elevated enablement, and a rebuilt portal experience, all engineered to help partners scale, compete, and deliver stronger customer outcomes as agentic AI reshapes how enterprises automate work. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260924791639/en/ Agentic print and document workflow environments remain an overlooked channel opportunity, as enterprises race toward agentic automation. IDC forecasts that by 2026, 40% of all Global 2000 job roles will involve working with AI agents, redefining long-held traditional entry-level, mid-level, and senior-level positions [1]. IDC's research points to this new class of AI reshaping not just how fa
The Only AI Crypto Lead Prioritization Solution Built With Law Enforcement, for Law Enforcement: Elliptic Launches Pulse24.9.2026 16:15:00 EEST | Press release
Elliptic, the global leader in on-chain risk, today launched Pulse. Pulse puts crypto lead prioritization directly in the hands of every frontline law enforcement and government officer. Crypto now touches every part of law enforcement, from the patrol officer on the street to the detective assigned to investigate the case. Pulse gives each of them a quick, accurate financial summary and a starting point: whether that's a crypto address on a suspect's phone, in a scam ATM victim's receipt, uncovered during a vehicle or pocket search, or found at the scene of an overdose, an arrest, or a seizure. An officer can input anything that looks like a wallet address or transaction hash. Pulse identifies it, reasons over the result, and returns a summary in plain language, enough for the officer to decide on the spot whether the case needs escalation. If a case needs further investigation, one click sends the full analysis forward, not just the evidence. The criminal investigations division gets
SymphonyAI Introduces Symphony Risk Intelligence, an Agent-native Platform That Unlocks Always-on Compliance™ — the Catalyst for Transforming the Financial Crime Operating Model24.9.2026 16:04:00 EEST | Press release
SymphonyAI today introduced Symphony Risk Intelligence (SRI), an enterprise-grade, agent-native platform built to unlock Always-on Compliance™. This is a critical shift from periodic to continuous risk and compliance management, in which institutions continuously reassess risk and adapt controls as regulations, threats and business activity change, rather than waiting for the next scheduled review. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260924914614/en/ Current approaches have reached their structural limits. The FinCrime Frontier 2026–27 Report, released recently by SymphonyAI and AML Intelligence, finds just 4.7% of financial institutions continuously update their compliance monitoring and controls as risk changes, and 76.3% still review alerts manually or with only partial automation — barely changed year over year. Yet standing still isn't an option: the regulatory climate is at a major inflection point across ev
Just 4.7% of Financial Institutions Continuously Update Their Compliance Monitoring and Controls as Risk Changes, New Research Finds24.9.2026 16:04:00 EEST | Press release
SymphonyAI, a global leader in vertical AI product platforms, and AML Intelligence, the leading source of news and insight for the financial crime compliance community, today released the FinCrime Frontier 2026–27 Report, finding that most financial institutions still rely on periodic review cycles to manage financial crime risk, even as the threats and regulations they are meant to track continue to evolve dynamically. Based on the perspectives of more than 200 financial crime and compliance leaders, including senior leaders from major global financial institutions, the research finds that just 4.7% of financial institutions continuously update their compliance monitoring and controls as risk changes, while 56.8% have not adopted always-on compliance monitoring at all, are only exploring it, or remain at an early, pilot-stage level. The finding points to a structural gap: financial crime typologies, payment ecosystems and regulatory expectations are evolving continuously, while most c
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom