塌房？灰度老板官司缠身 要步SBF后尘？
来源：Intelligencer；编译：比推BitpushNews Yanan
Eric Asquith向我透露：“直到 2022 年 11 月 16 日那天，我才了解到Barry Silbert的真面目以及与他相关的所有信息。”就在那天，他确信自己全家辛苦攒下的 105万美元积蓄已经化为乌有。
Asquith一直自诩为稳健的加密货币投资者。他刻意避开了比特币或其他大热的山寨币，转而选择在年初时，逐步将自己的资金转换为GUSD——这种他认为如同现金般可靠的数字货币。GUSD由知名加密货币交易所Gemini发行，每个代币都有美元和资产支持，这也使得Asquith对这家交易所产生了特别的信任。而Gemini的广告宣传词“远离加密货币的混乱（Crypto Without Chaos）”和“革命需要规则（The Revolution Needs Rules）”也深深打动了他，与他一贯的投资理念不谋而合。为了资金安全，Asquith没有贸然进行交易，而是选择了Gemini的Earn账户来存放这笔巨款。这是一个类似于储蓄账户的项目，年利率高达5.5%，远超同期银行利率。和Asquith一样，选择Earn项目的投资者众多，其中不乏有将毕生积蓄投入其中的老奶奶，也有正攒钱准备接受手术的人。
但是，加密货币世界充斥着层层包装的把戏——钱包的标识是一串长长的代码，而非用户的姓名；公司可以悄无声息地出现，又无声无息地消失。Asquith未曾完全意识到的是，他的资金其实早已不在Gemini的控制之下。从某种程度上来说，这笔钱似乎是被Barry Silbert掌管的加密公司Genesis接管了，但事实远比这复杂。一些濒临崩盘的对冲基金，如Three Arrows Capital和Sam Bankman-Fried的个人基金Alameda Research，都在暗中向Silbert的公司借款。就这样，Asquith和其他成千上万人的资金被SBF等人用于押注那些涨势最猛、波动性最大的代币。Earn账户就像一个巨大的漏斗，将那些对加密货币最为谨慎的储蓄者的资金，源源不断地输送到市场上最冒险的投机者手中。结局不言而喻，Silbert的Genesis公司，如同行业内的许多其他参与者一样，最终走向了破产的境地。2023年1月18日，一个独立于公司所有者控制的特别委员会正式将Genesis公司推向了破产程序。
Asquith深知，他的资金因Winklevoss兄弟、Silbert和SBF等加密大佬的短视决策而化为乌有，而这不过是加密帝国覆灭的冰山一角。在加密货币的世界里，这样的把戏早已屡见不鲜。整个2023年，关于Earn项目用户赔偿方案的谈判屡次破裂，Silbert的Digital Currency Group与债权人之间互相推诿，指责不断。然而，局势在11月发生了戏剧性的转变。Bankman-Fried被判犯有七项欺诈和共谋罪名，这无疑给整个加密货币市场投下了一颗重磅炸弹。同时，市场逐渐回暖，比特币价格也即将再次翻番，屡创新高，展现出顽强的生命力。
破产案向来都是棘手复杂的法律事务，债权人能拿回的赔偿往往只是所欠金额的一小部分。然而，今年2月，受害者们——即Silbert已破产的加密货币借贷平台的客户们，与Winklevoss兄弟和监管机构达成了一项令人振奋的协议：全额偿还所有用户损失。2024年加密货币市场的牛市行情使得全额偿还变得更加切实可行。这意味着Earn项目的客户们不仅能拿回他们当初投资的本金，还能获得以当前市价计算的更高额的收益。举个例子，一位当初投入1个比特币的用户，现在不会只得到Genesis破产时价值2万美元的赔偿，而是会拿回1个完整的比特币——要知道，与事发时相比，比特币市价已经翻了三倍以上。在宣布这一新解决方案的听证会上，Earn项目的受害者们在Telegram聊天室里欢呼雀跃。“天哪，我终于能买房了！真是太好了！”其中一位兴奋地表示。“我都要感动哭了，”另一个人感慨道。
这起事件的意外反转，让它有可能成为加密货币领域中的里程碑案例。与FTX等公司仅返还少量美元的破产处理方式不同，此案的赔偿方式显得格外引人注目。
然而，Silbert的介入让事情变得复杂。原本对他一无所知的Earn项目受害者们很快发现，他的成功之路竟是通过钻研破产制度的漏洞实现的。自2月份以来，这位亿万富翁一直在利用有争议的破产法解释，阻挠Asquith和其他受害者获得基于当前市场价格的更高赔付，显然，他更愿意将这笔钱据为己有。对此，DCG公司发言人坚决表示：“DCG无法支持任何剥夺其公司治理权且违反美国破产法的计划。”这起案件不仅关乎金钱赔偿，更对加密货币行业的未来监管与规范提出了严峻挑战
受害者们将Silbert的举动戏称为“Barry交易”，暗指他若成功，那原本应返还给受害者的10亿美金，将被他收入囊中。至少，Silbert可能会竭尽全力大幅推迟返还给Earn项目客户资金的时间节点。
Asquith一直怀揣希望，希望能拿回自己的钱，但Silbert在整件事情中扮演的角色却让他感到困惑不已。“考虑到Barry Silbert在破产方面的专业知识，以及他对破产程序的了解和他最终能获得的利益，许多人猜测他是故意让Genesis破产的。” Asquith如是说道。然而，DCG的一位发言人却坚决否认：“既不是DCG，也不是Barry Silbert，更没有其任何员工参与了破产申请的决策。”那么， Silbert究竟是在操控资金流向自己控制的公司，还是如他在法庭上辩称的那样，他是一位被行业中的骗子蒙蔽双眼的善意高管？而这些骗子现在要么身陷囹圄，要么躲藏无踪。
Silbert在华盛顿特区附近的马里兰州盖瑟斯堡长大。大约在他10岁那年，父亲因主动脉瘤导致心脏骤停而离世，这场家庭悲剧促使他早早担起养家的重任。据他的母亲向彭博社透露，还在读高中的Silbert便考取了交易员和股票经纪人的资格证书，之后更是踏入了华尔街知名投行Bear Stearn和Smith Barney的大门。
然而，真正让Silbert深刻领悟破产制度及其潜在巨大利润空间的，是在他商学院毕业后的工作经历。在为规模较小的投资银行Houlihan Lokey工作期间，他负责处理安然和WorldCom等破产公司的光纤电缆和管道出售事宜。这两家公司曾是1990年代和2000年代初美国最大的会计丑闻主角。后来，他在国会坦言，正是那段经历点燃了他创立自己公司SecondMarket的激情与决心。
当公司陷入破产境地时，其资产往往会成为竞争利益相关方的争夺焦点，这些利益相关方通常是借钱给公司并要求偿还的债权人。这些资产的风险往往远高于股票或债券，部分原因在于破产程序可能旷日持久，需要数年时间。在Silbert眼中，他的新公司就像是一个为破产债权和其他难以出售股票提供交易机会的“eBay”——虽然它的规模和影响力无法与纽约证券交易所相提并论，但却为市场提供了一个远比现有选择更为便捷的交易平台。
Silbert的初创公司位于曼哈顿市中心一个400平方英尺的办公室内，规模虽小，却充满活力。尽管员工人数不多，职责也时有重叠，但每个人都对公司怀有深厚的归属感。Adam Oliveri，作为Silbert早期聘请的员工之一，刚从本科经济学专业毕业，他回忆道：“那时作为年轻人，我对工作充满激情。有时觉得方法不对，我就会直接找Barry讨论，甚至站在办公桌上发表演讲，探讨如何改进。”几年后，Silbert发现了一个极具潜力的市场：在Facebook上市前为其股票寻找买家。马克·扎克伯格的员工希望出售手中价值不菲的股票，而Silbert的公司几乎垄断了这一交易市场。这一业务不仅吸引了众多目光，还为他带来了丰厚的利润，甚至让他登上了彭博社市场杂志的封面。
2015年，Silbert将SecondMarket成功出售给纳斯达克，但他并未止步，而是将目光投向了比特币这一新兴领域。早在2012年，他便开始为信托基金收购比特币，为投资者提供参与这一新兴市场的机会。为了支持比特币的早期布道者Charlie Shrem创办BitInstant交易所，Silbert曾冒险与Winklevoss兄弟进行资金争夺，但最终未能如愿。Shrem后来因涉及洗钱案而锒铛入狱。据记者Nathanial Popper在《数字黄金：比特币和区块链的兴衰》一书中的描述，Silbert甚至曾致电摩根大通老总Jamie Dimon，试图说服他比特币是未来的货币，但未能成功。尽管如此，Shrem在3月份的播客中表示，Silbert的努力让许多风险投资公司真正认可了比特币作为一种投资和资产类别的潜力。
Silbert创办的比特币基金后来更名为灰度比特币信托（Grayscale Bitcoin Trust），并迅速在市场上取得巨大成功。当时，市场上鲜有类似产品，该信托允许投资者在公开市场通过股票代码交易，打通了他们购买比特币的路径——尤其是对于那些不想注册加密货币交易所的投资者来说。尽管有金融记者Felix Salmon质疑其“不是个好主意”，但该基金确实带来了丰厚的利润。当时，投资者在买入和卖出基金份额时，需要向DCG支付2%和1.5%的费用，这也为DCG带来了可观的收入。
随着时间的推移，该基金规模不断壮大。到2019年底，它持有的比特币价值已达18.7亿美金；而在第二年，其规模更是增长了近十倍，达到惊人的177亿美金。不久之后，这一数字又再次翻番。
Silbert的财富源源不断流入，而他的资金也似乎流向了加密领域的各个角落。通过DCG，他投资了全球知名的交易所Coinbase、硬件钱包制造商Ledger以及市值数十亿美金的山寨币Ripple。此外，他还收购了新闻媒体CoinDesk，并创立了Genesis涉足机构借贷业务，借鉴华尔街的运营模式。Genesis就像一个对冲基金，从像Asquith这样的投资者那里获取资金（虽然不是直接借贷），然后进行高风险交易。据知情人士透露，在市场繁荣时期，Genesis曾是DCG的主要盈利来源之一。
尽管Silbert在加密领域具有举足轻重的地位，但他并不像Bankman-Fried那样在2020年因独特的造型和名人朋友圈而成为行业的焦点。人们更多熟悉的是他背后的公司网络，而非他本人。2021年，Genesis与Winklevoss兄弟的交易所合作推出了Earn项目，这一举措为Silbert的公司”借来”了约10亿美金的加密货币。
然而，尽管该项目在疫情期间的加密货币泡沫中经历了爆炸式增长，却最终却成为了Silbert作为加密行业大佬的最大威胁。
自去年1月以来，Silbert的公司面临了一系列法律挑战。债权人如Asquith在纽约的破产法庭上积极争取权益，力图挽回损失。10月19日，纽约州总检察长Letitia James更是提起诉讼，指控DCG、Genesis、Genesis的首席执行官、Silbert以及Winklevoss兄弟的交易所Gemini涉嫌欺诈客户。指控中特别指出，2022年春季，在Genesis的客户Three Arrows Capital倒闭后，DCG为了掩盖其资产负债表上的漏洞，开出了一张虚假的11亿美元的承诺票据。
该诉讼详细揭示了一个复杂的欺诈计划：Winklevoss兄弟的Gemini被指诱导投资者将资金投入风险较高的产品，而Silbert的DCG及其子公司则利用这些资金进行高风险交易。一位前雇员表示：“先不管Gemini做了什么或没做什么，Genesis在保护客户资产和遵守最佳实践方面的疏忽都更为严重。”此外，据该人士透露，公司存在的问题还包括未能筛查列入财政部黑名单的客户，这一指控得到了纽约金融服务局于1月份提起的另一项诉讼的支持。
总检察长和监管机构的诉讼仍在进行中，DCG和Silbert坚决否认任何不当行为。DCG甚至声称其承诺性票据并非欺诈，并表示有意兑现。双方都在努力撤销各自的指控。无论州法院的判决结果如何，Silbert对Earn项目客户——那些最初是出于信任才将资金借给他的受害者，采取了迄今为止最强硬的姿态。自2月份以来，他一直使用一个看似不寻常的论据来进行辩驳。DCG辩称，根据破产法，很多原本借给Genesis加密货币的人无法按照当前的加密货币市场价格获得赔偿。这意味着对于当时借出比特币和其他许多代币的受害者来说，损失可能高达数百甚至数千倍。
Silbert的法律逻辑基于这样一个事实：破产法设定了一个特定日期，用以评估受害者债权的美元价值。对于Genesis来说，这个日期恰好是市场低谷时期。DCG的律师Jeffrey D. Saferstein在一次听证会上向法官表示：“尊敬的法官阁下，我可以向您保证，如果比特币今天的市场价格是1万美元，受害者们的论点就会完全不同。”上个月，在宣布11亿美元和解协议的听证会上，DCG的律师甚至进一步主张法官无权批准该协议，这一举动激怒了受害者。一位不愿透露姓名的债权人告诉我：“我在加密货币领域待了很久，之前我一直把Silbert视为偶像，但经历了这一切之后，我真的无法再忍受他了。”
3月18日，Sean H. Lane法官在法庭上听取了结案陈词。各方律师代表债权人、Genesis和Gemini，纷纷阐述了为何应驳回Silbert论点的理由。尽管辩论中涉及众多技术性细节，但核心焦点在于比特币这一特殊资产的属性，它如同珍稀的棒球卡一般。Genesis的律师Brian Rosen在听证会上举例道：“假设一位债权人拥有一张罕见的Honus Wagner球星卡，那么他应有权获得整张完整的球星卡，而非卡片的一部分。”巧合的是，Genesis 现在站在了 Silbert 和 DCG 的对立面，支持受害者的主张。
然而， DCG律师团中的Jessica Liou将受害者的论点斥为缺乏破产法庭规则支持的“弗兰肯斯坦式理论（译者注：弗兰肯斯坦式理论是指东拼西凑、不伦不类的理论）”。她表示：“我明白这对法院来说是一个艰难的决定，因为担心会影响到Genesis案中的债权人。但有时候，法院确实需要做出艰难抉择。”DCG的其他律师则警告称，若法官判决支持受害者，该判决可能会被上诉并“撤销”，这可能导致支付时间进一步推迟数月之久。
即便法官最终站在Silbert一方，他也可能会因为这笔资金而承担一定的责任。。若他和DCG无法摆脱总检察长的诉讼，州政府可能会将这笔钱作为赔偿予以没收——这也是DCG和Silbert极力避免的结果。然而，如果Silbert最终胜诉，他将能够阻止总检察长办公室代表Earn项目客户收取这笔资金，进而将其留在自己的掌控之中。
判决结果预计将在4月份揭晓。自和解协议宣布以来，由于Silbert的反对，受害者们已做好打持久战的准备。“一年前，当和解协议被提出的时候，所有人都欣喜若狂，” Asquith说道，“但现在，我只有在资金真正到账后才会松下一口气。”
The source compilation ratio pushed me to reveal the true face and all the information related to him that I didn't know until the day of January. On that day, he was convinced that his family's hard-earned savings of $10,000 had gone up in smoke. The illustration has always boasted of being a steady cryptocurrency investor. He deliberately avoided bitcoin or other hot counterfeit coins and chose to gradually convert his own funds into this kind of digital currency, which he thought was as reliable as cash, and each token was issued by a well-known cryptocurrency exchange at the beginning of the year. Both of them are supported by US dollars and assets, which makes them have a special trust in this exchange, and the advertising slogan is far away from the chaos of cryptocurrency and the need for revolutionary rules, which also deeply touches him. It coincides with his consistent investment philosophy. For the sake of capital security, he chose an account to deposit this huge sum of money. This is a project similar to a savings account, with an annual interest rate far exceeding the bank interest rate in the same period. There are many investors who choose the project, many of whom have invested their life savings. Among them, some grandmothers are saving money for surgery, but the cryptocurrency world is full of layers of tricks. The logo of the wallet is a long string of codes instead of the user's name. The company can appear and disappear quietly. What I don't fully realize is that his funds are actually out of control. To some extent, the money seems to have been taken over by the crypto company in charge, but the fact is far more complicated than this. Some hedge funds such as Hehe Personal Fund are on the verge of collapse. In this way, companies that are secretly borrowing money from others and thousands of other people's funds are used by others to bet on those token accounts with the strongest rise and the greatest volatility, just like a huge funnel, which continuously transports the funds of savers who are most cautious about cryptocurrencies to the most risky speculators in the market. It is self-evident that the company, like many other participants in the industry, eventually went bankrupt, and a special Committee independent of the company's owner is controlling it. Type pushed the company into bankruptcy proceedings, knowing that his funds were wiped out because of the short-sighted decision of brothers and other cryptographers, and this was just the tip of the iceberg of the demise of cryptographers. In the cryptographer's world, such tricks have long been common. Throughout the year, the negotiations on the compensation scheme for project users broke down repeatedly, and the creditors kept blaming each other. However, the situation took a dramatic turn in June and he was convicted of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy, which undoubtedly cast a shadow on the entire cryptographer's market. At the same time, the market is gradually picking up, and the price of bitcoin is about to double again, showing its tenacious vitality. Bankruptcy cases have always been difficult and complicated legal affairs, and the compensation that creditors can get back is often only a small part of the amount owed. However, this month, the victims, the customers of the bankrupt cryptocurrency lending platform, reached an exciting agreement with their brothers and regulators to fully repay all users' losses. The bull market in the cryptocurrency market has changed the full repayment. To be more practical means that the customers of the project can not only get back the principal of their original investment, but also get higher income at the current market price. For example, a user who invested in a bitcoin will not only get compensation worth $10,000 at the time of bankruptcy, but will get back a complete bitcoin. You know, the market price of bitcoin has more than tripled compared with the time of the incident. At the hearing to announce this new solution, the victims of the project cheered in the chat room. It's great that I can finally buy a house. One of them said excitedly that I was about to cry. Another person lamented that the accidental anti-transfer of this incident may become a milestone case in the field of cryptocurrency, which is different from the bankruptcy treatment method in which companies only return a small amount of dollars. However, the compensation method in this case is particularly eye-catching. However, the intervention made things complicated. The victims of the project who knew nothing about him soon discovered that his road to success was actually achieved by studying the loopholes in the bankruptcy system. Since June, the billionaire has been using the controversial bankruptcy law to explain the obstruction and other victims to get higher compensation based on the current market price. Obviously, he is more willing to keep the money for himself. The company spokesman firmly stated that he could not support any plan to deprive him of his corporate governance rights and violate the bankruptcy law of the United States. This case is not only about monetary compensation, but also poses a severe challenge to the future supervision and regulation of the cryptocurrency industry. The victims dubbed the move as a transaction implying that he would. Success, which should have been returned to the victim, will be pocketed by him. At least, he may make every effort to greatly delay the time of returning the funds to the project customers. He has always hoped to get his money back, but his role in the whole thing has puzzled him. Considering his professional knowledge in bankruptcy, his understanding of bankruptcy procedures and the benefits he can finally get, many people speculate that he deliberately let the bankruptcy go, but a spokesman firmly denied it. No, no, no, no one of its employees participated in the decision-making of bankruptcy filing. So, was he manipulating funds to flow to the company he controlled, or was he a well-intentioned executive blinded by swindlers in the industry as he argued in court? Now these swindlers are either in jail or hiding. They grew up in gaithersburg, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., and their father died of cardiac arrest due to an aortic aneurysm when he was about 18 years old. This family tragedy prompted him to take care of his family early. According to his mother's disclosure to Bloomberg, when he was still in high school, he obtained the qualification certificates of traders and stockbrokers, and then he stepped into the door of well-known investment banks on Wall Street. However, what really made him deeply understand the bankruptcy system and its potential huge profit margin was his work experience after graduating from business school. During his work for smaller investment banks, he was responsible for handling the sale of optical fiber cables and pipes of Enron and other bankrupt companies, which were the largest in the United States in the 1990 s and early 1990 s. Later, the protagonist of the accounting scandal admitted in Congress that it was that experience that ignited his passion and determination to start his own company. When the company went into bankruptcy, its assets often became the focus of competition among competing stakeholders. These stakeholders are usually creditors who lent money to the company and demanded repayment. The risk of these assets is often much higher than that of stocks or bonds, in part because the bankruptcy procedure may take years. In his eyes, his new company is like a trading opportunity for bankruptcy claims and other stocks that are difficult to sell, although its scale and influence cannot be compared with that of the new york Stock Exchange. 比特币今日价格行情网_okx交易所app_永续合约_比特币怎么买卖交易_虚拟币交易所平台
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