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OPNX, the crypto bankruptcy claims exchange conceived by Three Arrows Capital co-founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies Coinflex founders went live today,
The new company is the first bankruptcy marketplace to primarily trade claims related to bankrupt crypto firms.
OPNX Bankruptcy Claims Not Yet Listed
The launch was announced by the firm’s CEO, Leslie Lim. Lim said the marketplace was live for spot and futures trading.
“We’re here building OPNX because we want to help the industry,” she said. “There are over 20 million claimants worldwide… that are stuck waiting years to access their funds.”
The marketplace will accept FLEX tokens for trading fees. One-fifth of revenue will be burned, although the burn frequency was not specified.
Bankruptcy claims marketplaces save creditors of a bankruptcy estate from waiting for bankruptcy proceedings to conclude before receiving remuneration. Creditors sell claims for immediate cash together with the ownership of that claim to the claims marketplace. After this, the bankruptcy court is notified that the marketplace is the new claimant. The claims shop then assumes the risk of recovering funds from the Debtor.
A quick perusal of the OPNX website indicates that the marketplace will process bankruptcy claims from BlockFi, FTX, Genesis, Voyager, Celsius and Vauld, and Three Arrows Capital. However, the claims are not yet listed on OPNX.
News of the new marketplace hit the wires in January 2023. Where the Three Arrows co-founders looked to raise $25 million for a bankruptcy marketplace called GTX. A British Virgin Islands court ordered the liquidation of their hedge fund last year. A Chapter 15 bankruptcy filing in New York soon followed.
New Marketplace Criticized on Social Media
Obviously, the launch of OPNX drew ire on social media, with crypto sleuth ZachXBT dismissing Lim’s claims of helping people.
Kyle Davies, the other co-founder of Three Arrows, invited the crypto sleuth for a dialogue on the exchange, saying “Zach, would be great to get your feedback. Let’s do a call. DM’ed you.
Crypto reporter Tony Mitchelhill said the new venture would likely fail:
I don’t think this’ll turn out how you think it will.
Furthermore, a researcher at Grayscale Investments questioned why 3AC’s founders didn’t leave the bankruptcy claims project to someone else, further adding insult to injury by telling the 3AC team to “leave with the millions of dollars they grifted from people.”
Jeff Kirkdeikis of TrustSwap said he would look forward to shorting OPNX’s native FLEX token.
The mockery of the new venture comes as the founders have failed to respond to subpoena requests from a U.S. bankruptcy court to make creditors of their defunct hedge fund whole.
Lenders BlockFi and Genesis liquidated Three Arrows’ positions last year after the firm failed to respond to margin calls. Former Genesis CEO Michael Moro recently started a new position as CEO of a new so-called hybrid exchange Ankex that incorporates elements of a centralized and decentralized exchange.
Derivatives exchange Deribit claimed in July 2022 that Three Arrows did not pay $80 million in loans, interest, and the negative asset value of its account. Three Arrows borrowed Bitcoin and Ether from Deribit in March 2020.
A court recently ruled that Binance.US could acquire Voyager Digital, a crypto brokerage that lent over $600 million to Three Arrows Capital.
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