On November 2, 2022, CoinDesk published a report on Alameda Research's finances
On November 6, 2022, Binance founder CZ publicly announced that he would liquidate all FTTs on the company's books
On November 9, 2022, FTX turned to Binance for help
On November 10, 2022, Binance abandoned its acquisition of FTX after due diligence
On November 11, 2022, FTX filed for bankruptcy protection
In just 10 days, the huge trading empire minted by FTX collapsed. FTX's founder, Sam, was arrested by U.S. authorities in the Bahamas, and the former FTX executive, who charged him after pleading guilty, was released on $250 million bail after being extradited to the United States.
Sam continues to firmly deny guilt, which is logical. If convicted, he could face more than 115 years in prison.
Sam went on to receive new charges — bribery that allegedly paid $40 million to Chinese officials in order to regain $1 billion in frozen cryptocurrency. According to the allegations, the deal was intended to influence and induce Chinese officials to unfreeze the cryptocurrency accounts of FTX affiliate Alameda Research.
What efforts has FTX made in the first half of 2023?
According to court documents, bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX may restart, and new CEO John Ray is working on plans for a restart. The plan was first discussed in January. In April, lawyers reportedly said FTX had recovered $7.3 billion. The FTX team aims to restart trading between the third and fourth quarters of 2024. Court documents show that the CEO has been in meetings with creditors and debtors. Sequoia Capital partner Alfred Lin also claimed that the launch of FTX 2.0 is in preparation.
FTX has spent more than $200 million on bankruptcy proceedings, which represents 2 percent of all assets and 10 percent of cash. According to The Block, FTX paid $121.8 million in legal, consulting and financial services fees between Feb. 1 and April 30. It is worth noting that 46 of the 242 lawyers involved earn more than $2,000 an hour, and many are incredulous and angry about this, and there is no doubt that the lawyer's fee is very expensive.
Which companies are interested in FTX reboots?
Recently, FTX's consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal announced the names of the parties under Section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which allows the sale of the company's assets. The list represents entities interested in the relaunch of FTX 2.0 who have been contacted and signed confidentiality agreements seeking more details regarding the restructuring and exchange relaunch. Notable companies on the list include Nasdaq, Ripple Labs, Galaxy Digital, BlackRock, Tribe Capital, Robinhood, NYDIG and OKCoin.
This is not an exclusive list of potential buyers or investors, but rather parties interested in this crypto exchange. Companies also plan to invest in FTX 2.0, with teams led by current FTX CEO John Ray III working on tender process letters, interested parties, market maker onboarding, and FTX Japan's restart.
FTX debtors: FTX owes customers approximately $8.7 billion
On June 27, FTX debtors released a second investigative report on Monday, detailing the exchange's mixing and misuse of customer deposits. John J. Ray III, CEO and Chief Restructuring Officer, said in a statement: "From the inception of the FTX Exchange, FTX Group has mixed customer deposits and company funds and misused them under the guidance and design of previous executives. FTX owes customers about $8.7 billion, the report said. The third survey report is expected to be released in August 2023.
FTX launches the Customer Claims Portal with further notice
FTX has now launched a customer claims portal https://claims.ftx.com, according to which individual customers can access their account information and then submit an application that will be included in FTX's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The site will be open to customers with accounts in FTX.com, FTX US, Blockfolio, FTX EU, FTX JP AND Liquid.
It is worth noting that the FTX Claims Portal is currently unavailable and FTX debtors will announce when the portal will be enabled and warn against phishing links from other channels. In addition, FTX indicates that the deadline for customers to file claims has been set for September 29, 2023 at 4 p.m. EST. Depending on when the claim was filed, no priority was given and the claim must be filed by the deadline.
At the same time, affected by the good news, according to non-small data, FTT rose as high as 17.89% in 24 hours, and the highest impact was $1.8044, and the current price is $1.6517.
Overall, FTX's current moves reflect positive signs, and FTX is likely to meet again later this year to prepare for the bull market and take a new stance to the explosive crypto market.