Crypto Billionaire, Ripple Founder, Jed McCalebs, Non-Profit Lent Genesis Money

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Jed McCaleb, an early cryptocurrency pioneer, became a billionaire as XRP soared.

Photo of Stellar Development FoundationThe Stellar Development Foundation, a nonprofit created by Jed McCaleb in 2014, owes $13.2 million to Genesis, the bankrupt crypto lending company.

Crypto lending firm Genesis filed for bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York on Thursday evening, making it the latest victim of the crypto market contagion that has rattled investors since the November collapse of the FTX crypto exchange.

New documents have revealed that Genesis owes its 50 largest creditors some $3.4 billion. One such creditor is the Stellar Development Foundation, an organization affiliated with the Stellar blockchain and its Lumens cryptocurrency. Jed McCaleb, one of the first cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, founded Stellar in 2014.

Genesis owes the Stellar Development Foundation approximately $13.2 million, according to the bankruptcy filing. The foundation, which describes itself as a nonprofit, is Genesis’ 42nd largest creditor.

A spokesperson for the Stellar Development Foundation said in an email to Forbes that the organization made a limited round of loans in 2022 to the Genesis Institutional Lending Office. The outstanding receivable represents an intangible part of our overall cash position and has no impact on our operations as we remain well funded for the current and future pursuit of our mission to create equitable access to the global financial system, the gatekeeper said. -word.

The Stellar Development Foundation describes its mission as supporting the development and growth of the Stellar open source network. Stellar counts prominent Silicon Valley investors and entrepreneurs, including venture capitalist Keith Rabois, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, among its advisers, according to the foundation’s website.

The venture capital arm of the Stellar Foundations, the Enterprise Fund, has invested over $55 million in a dozen crypto and payment startups. The Foundation has also partnered with organizations such as the United Nations Refugee Agency and P2P payments company MoneyGram on various initiatives.

McCaleb, 48, was among the first software engineers to start a cryptocurrency business. In 2010, he launched Mt. Gox, which became the first major Bitcoin exchange. He sold Mt. Gox in 2011, before it was hacked.

In 2011, McCaleb began developing the source code for a token called XRP, which partnered with payment startup Ripple in 2012. Within a year, McCaleb left Ripple due to reported disagreements with other founders. He signed a separation agreement, which limited the amount of XRP he could sell at one time.

McCaleb, whose value Forbes estimates at $2.4 billion, is one of the few crypto tycoons to have retained his fortune amid the recent crypto crash. This is because McCaleb sold off much of his crypto during the height of the market foam.

McCaleb unwound approximately $2.5 billion worth of XRP tokens (pre-tax) between December 2020 and July 2022. Today, XRP is trading around $0.40 per coin, down about 50% from report earlier this year, when McCaleb was dumping millions of dollars worth of chips every week. .

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