UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM
REPORT OF FOREIGN PRIVATE ISSUER PURSUANT TO
RULE 13A-16 OR 15D-16 UNDER THE SECURITIES
EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For
the month of December,
Commission
File Number:
(Translation of registrant’s name into English)
(Address of principal executive offices)
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F.
Form 20-F ☒ Form 40-F ☐
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1): ________.
Note: Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1) only permits the submission in paper of a Form 6-K if submitted solely to provide an attached annual report to security holders.
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7): ________.
Note: Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7) only permits the submission in paper of a Form 6-K if submitted to furnish a report or other document that the registrant foreign private issuer must furnish and make public under the laws of the jurisdiction in which the registrant is incorporated, domiciled or legally organized (the registrant’s “home country”), or under the rules of the home country exchange on which the registrant’s securities are traded, as long as the report or other document is not a press release, is not required to be and has not been distributed to the registrant’s security holders, and, if discussing a material event, has already been the subject of a Form 6-K submission or other Commission filing on EDGAR.
Genius Group Limited (the “Company”) is providing the following update with regards to its Bitcoin Treasury strategy and financing activities and other corporate events.
The Company has entered into a loan with a commercial lender for $10 million principal amount loan to purchase Bitcoin. The loan has an 18 month term and bears interest at 13.9% per annum, with interest repaid monthly over the 18 month term and the principal payable in full at the end of the term. The loan is issued with a 50% LTV with top up request at 70% and liquidation at 80%. The loan is secured against the Company’s current Bitcoin Treasury. 100% of the loan has been utilized to increase the Company’s Bitcoin holdings, from $20 million to $30 million. The Company may repay the loan early with no penalty.
The Company has reached a provisional resolution, subject to execution of definitive documentation, with its institutional investor with relation to the previously disclosed breach of agreement caused by LZGI officers, with whom the Company is currently in arbitration. The proposed settlement with the investor is to include payment of $500,000 and a full exchange of 1.95 million outstanding warrants, with 0.5 freely tradable shares exchanged for each 1.0 outstanding warrant in a transaction exempt from registration under Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The Company intends to pursue the recovery of this settlement cost from the LZGI officers responsible for the breach.
The Company does not have any other loan indebtedness on its balance sheet at this time except as disclosed above.
CYBERSECURITY
Information Security Program
The mission of our information security organization is to design, implement, and maintain an information security program that protects our systems, services, and data against unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, damage, and loss. The information security organization is comprised of internal and external security and technology professionals. We continue to make investments in information security resources to mature, expand, and adapt our capabilities to address emerging cybersecurity risks and threats. The information security organization is overseen by the Information Security Advisory Team, further detailed under the caption “Cybersecurity Governance” below.
Cybersecurity Risk Management and Strategy
Our cybersecurity risk management program includes:
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Cybersecurity Governance
Our Board considers cybersecurity risk as part of its risk oversight function and has delegated the oversight of cybersecurity and other information technology risks to the Board’s Audit Committee. As part of this oversight, we creating the Information Security Advisory Team (the “Task Force”). The Task Force will be comprised of senior managers and executives from multiple departments within the Company, including the IT, finance, legal and operations departments. The Task Force will oversee our information security program and our strategy, including management’s implementation of cybersecurity risk management.
The Task Force will meet at least quarterly to discuss matters involving cybersecurity risks.
The Task Force ultimately will provide information to our Audit Committee regarding its activities, including those related to cybersecurity risks. The Audit Committee will also receive a briefing and continuing education from a member of the Task Force relating to our cyber risk management program at least annually. The Task Force will be responsible for notifying the Audit Committee of material cybersecurity incidents.
Risks related to our Bitcoin Acquisition Strategy
WE ARE NOT REGISTERED AS AN INVESTMENT COMPANY UNDER THE INVESTMENT COMPANY ACT OF 1940 AND STOCKHOLDERS DO NOT HAVE THE PROTECTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH OWNERSHIP OF SHARES IN A REGISTERED INVESTMENT COMPANY NOR THE PROTECTIONS AFFORDED BY COMMODITIES EXCHANGE REGULATIONS.
Our bitcoin acquisition strategy may expose us to various risks associated with bitcoin
Our bitcoin acquisition strategy may expose us to various risks associated with bitcoin, including the following:
Bitcoin is a highly volatile asset. Bitcoin is a highly volatile asset that has traded below $39,000 per bitcoin and above $108,000 per bitcoin on Coinbase in the 12 months preceding the date of this disclosure. The trading price of bitcoin was significantly lower during prior periods, and such decline may occur again in the future. Further risk includes requirements to redeem the above mentioned loan if LTV approaches 50% or less, which could happen if the price of Bitcoin is significantly lower than current levels.
Our bitcoin acquisition strategy has not been tested. This bitcoin acquisition strategy has not been tested. Although we believe bitcoin, due to its limited supply, has the potential to serve as a hedge against inflation in the long term, the short-term price of bitcoin declined in recent periods during which the inflation rate increased. Some investors and other market participants may disagree with our bitcoin acquisition strategy or actions we undertake to implement it. If bitcoin prices were to decrease or our bitcoin acquisition strategy otherwise proves unsuccessful, our financial condition, results of operations, and the market price of our common stock would be materially adversely impacted.
The broader digital assets industry is subject to counterparty risks, which could adversely impact the adoption rate, price, and use of bitcoin. A series of recent high-profile bankruptcies, closures, liquidations, regulatory enforcement actions and other events relating to companies operating in the digital asset industry, the closure or liquidation of certain financial institutions that provided lending and other services to the digital assets industry, and the filing and subsequent settlement of a civil fraud lawsuit by the New York Attorney General have highlighted the counterparty risks applicable to owning and transacting in digital assets. Any such bankruptcies, closures, liquidations, regulatory enforcement actions or other events involving participants in the digital assets industry may negatively impact the adoption rate, price, and use of bitcoin, limit the availability to us of financing collateralized by bitcoin, or create or expose additional counterparty risks.
Changes in the legal and/or accounting treatment of our bitcoin holdings could have significant accounting impacts, including increasing the volatility of our results.
The broader digital assets industry, including the technology associated with digital assets, the rate of adoption and development of, and use cases for, digital assets, market perception of digital assets, and the legal, regulatory, and accounting treatment of digital assets are constantly developing and changing, and there may be additional risks in the future that are not possible to predict.
We may use the net proceeds from this offering to purchase bitcoin, the price of which has been, and will likely continue to be, highly volatile.
We may use the net proceeds from this offering to purchase bitcoin. Bitcoin is a highly volatile asset In addition, bitcoin does not pay interest or other returns and so ability to generate a return on investment from the net proceeds from this offering will depend on whether there is appreciation in the value of bitcoin following our purchases of bitcoin with the net proceeds from this offering. Future fluctuations in bitcoin trading prices may result in our converting bitcoin purchased with the net proceeds from this offering into cash with a value substantially below the net proceeds from this offering.
Bitcoin and other digital assets are novel assets, and are subject to significant legal, commercial, regulatory and technical uncertainty.
Bitcoin and other digital assets are relatively novel and are subject to significant uncertainty, which could adversely impact their price. The application of state and federal securities laws and other laws and regulations to digital assets is unclear in certain respects, and it is possible that regulators in the United States or foreign countries may interpret or apply existing laws and regulations in a manner that adversely affects the price of bitcoin.
The U.S. federal government, states, regulatory agencies, and foreign countries may also enact new laws and regulations, or pursue regulatory, legislative, enforcement or judicial actions, that could materially impact the price of bitcoin or the ability of individuals or institutions such as us to own or transfer bitcoin. It is not possible to predict whether, or when, any of these developments will lead to Congress granting additional authorities to the SEC or other regulators, or whether, or when, any other federal, state or foreign legislative bodies will take any similar actions. It is also not possible to predict the nature of any such additional authorities, how additional legislation or regulatory oversight might impact the ability of digital asset markets to function or the willingness of financial and other institutions to continue to provide services to the digital assets industry, nor how any new regulations or changes to existing regulations might impact the value of digital assets generally and bitcoin specifically. The consequences of increased regulation of digital assets and digital asset activities could adversely affect the market price of bitcoin and in turn adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
Moreover, the risks of engaging in a bitcoin treasury strategy are relatively novel and have created, and could continue to create, complications due to the lack of experience that third parties have with companies engaging in such a strategy, such as increased costs of director and officer liability insurance or the potential inability to obtain such coverage on acceptable terms in the future.
The growth of the digital assets industry in general, and the use and acceptance of bitcoin in particular, may also impact the price of bitcoin and is subject to a high degree of uncertainty. The pace of worldwide growth in the adoption and use of bitcoin may depend, for instance, on public familiarity with digital assets, ease of buying, accessing or gaining exposure to bitcoin, institutional demand for bitcoin as an investment asset, the participation of traditional financial institutions in the digital assets industry, consumer demand for bitcoin as a means of payment, and the availability and popularity of alternatives to bitcoin. Even if growth in bitcoin adoption occurs in the near or medium-term, there is no assurance that bitcoin usage will continue to grow over the long-term.
Because bitcoin has no physical existence beyond the record of transactions on the bitcoin blockchain, a variety of technical factors related to the bitcoin blockchain could also impact the price of bitcoin. For example, malicious attacks by miners, inadequate mining fees to incentivize validating of bitcoin transactions, hard “forks” of the bitcoin blockchain into multiple blockchains, and advances in digital computing, algebraic geometry, and quantum computing could undercut the integrity of the bitcoin blockchain and negatively affect the price of bitcoin. The liquidity of bitcoin may also be reduced and damage to the public perception of bitcoin may occur, if financial institutions were to deny or limit banking services to businesses that hold bitcoin, provide bitcoin-related services or accept bitcoin as payment, which could also decrease the price of bitcoin. Similarly, the open-source nature of the bitcoin blockchain means the contributors and developers of the bitcoin blockchain are generally not directly compensated for their contributions in maintaining and developing the blockchain, and any failure to properly monitor and upgrade the bitcoin blockchain could adversely affect the bitcoin blockchain and negatively affect the price of bitcoin.
Recent actions by U.S. banking regulators have reduced the ability of bitcoin-related services providers to gain access to banking services and liquidity of bitcoin may also be impacted to the extent that changes in applicable laws and regulatory requirements negatively impact the ability of exchanges and trading venues to provide services for bitcoin and other digital assets.
Our intended bitcoin holdings may be less liquid than our existing cash and cash equivalents and may not be able to serve as a source of liquidity for us to the same extent as cash and cash equivalents.
Historically, the bitcoin markets have been characterized by significant volatility in price, limited liquidity and trading volumes compared to sovereign currencies markets, relative anonymity, a developing regulatory landscape, potential susceptibility to market abuse and manipulation, compliance and internal control failures at exchanges, and various other risks inherent in its entirely electronic, virtual form and decentralized network. During times of market instability, we may not be able to sell our bitcoin at favorable prices or at all. For example, a number of bitcoin trading venues temporarily halted deposits and withdrawals in 2022. As a result, our bitcoin holdings may not be able to serve as a source of liquidity for us to the same extent as cash and cash equivalents. Further, bitcoin we may hold with our custodians and transact with our trade execution partners may not enjoy the same protections as are available to cash or securities deposited with or transacted by institutions subject to regulation by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. Additionally, we may be unable to enter into term loans or other capital raising transactions collateralized by our unencumbered bitcoin or otherwise generate funds using our bitcoin holdings, including in particular during times of market instability or when the price of bitcoin has declined significantly. If we are unable to sell our bitcoin, enter into additional capital raising transactions using bitcoin as collateral, or otherwise generate funds using our bitcoin holdings, or if we are forced to sell our bitcoin at a significant loss, in order to meet our working capital requirements, our business and financial condition could be negatively impacted.
Exhibit
99.1 | Genius Group increases Bitcoin Treasury by 50% to $30 million, reports 1,649% BTC Yield in Q4 2024 |
99.2 | Genius Group Arch Lending Loan Agreement |
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
GENIUS GROUP LIMITED | ||
Date: December 30, 2024 | ||
By: | /s/ Roger Hamilton | |
Name: | Roger Hamilton | |
Title: | Chief Executive Officer (Principal Executive Officer) |