“Bitcoin Jesus” Roger Ver Owes Genesis $20M

Roger Ver apparently owes Genesis $20 million. He was previously accused by crypto exchange CoinFLEX of defaulting on a $47 million obligation.

Bitcoin Jesus Loves Leverage

2022 must have been a difficult year for Roger Ver.

Crypto lending company Genesis issued a summons on January 23 to Roger Ver, claiming the Bitcoin advocate owes it over $20 million. According to the filing, Ver incurred this debt by trading cryptocurrency options, which expired on December 30, 2022. He was given 20 days to answer the summons. Genesis is seeking damages, and for Ver to pay the company’s legal expenses in its action against him.

Roger Ver is an early Bitcoin investor and influencer. His evangelistic promoting style earned him the nickname of “Bitcoin Jesus.” He is the Executive Chairman of Bitcoin.com.

This isn’t the first time a crypto company has accused Ver of defaulting on his obligations. In June 2022, crypto exchange CoinFLEX announced that Ver owed the company over $47 million. He denied the accusation, claiming that it was in fact CoinFLEX that owed him funds. CoinFLEX decided to monetize their liability by creating a token, rvUSD (while it is officially named Recovery Value USD, the coin also bears Roger Ver’s initials).

Genesis is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group. The crypto lending company froze loan originations and redemptions on November 16, citing “extreme market dislocation” due to FTX’s spectacular collapse and the industry-wide panic it brought. Genesis filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week; the company owes over $3.5 billion to its top 50 creditors.

Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss has claimed in various open letters that Genesis owes Gemini Earn clients over $900 million; he has also accused Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert and Genesis of defrauding lenders.

Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and several other crypto assets.