FTX: Billions worth found at insolvent crypto company

At the bankrupt cryptocurrency platform FTX, lawyers have discovered remaining assets totaling five billion dollars (4.64 billion euros).

That sum was found in the form of “cash, liquid cryptocurrency and liquid securities,” said bankruptcy attorney Andrew Dietderich in a Delaware court on Wednesday.

Those assets were valued at the time of FTX’s bankruptcy filing in November and do not include the $425 million being held by Bahamian authorities, the company’s lawyers said.

The company is also “on the right track” to sell other assets with a book value of $4.6 billion. However, it remains unclear to what extent the assets found will be sufficient to be able to service the creditors’ claims. The amount of missing FTX customer funds is not yet clear, the lawyers said. FTX had around 9 million customer accounts before the bankruptcy.

Shock to the crypto world

FTX filed for bankruptcy in November, rocking the crypto world. The company’s business construct collapsed when it was revealed that FTX was holding its client funds primarily in a specially issued cryptocurrency with no equivalent.

As early as mid-November, the plaintiffs affected by the insolvency were demanding damages – including from the US football superstar Tom Brady and the Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka, who posed as advertising faces for the crypto exchange.

From “crypto prodigy” to criminal

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been charged in the US with fraud and money laundering, among other things. The 30-year-old was arrested in the Bahamas in December and extradited to the United States. There are also civil lawsuits and class action lawsuits against him in the United States.

It is a spectacular crash: Just a few months ago, the young entrepreneur graced the front pages of US business journals as a crypto prodigy. Before the FTX bankruptcy, Forbes and Bloomberg once estimated his wealth at over $26 billion.