FTX Uncovers $5.5 Billion in Assets Through “Herculean Effort”
The CEO of crypto exchange FTX, John Ray, announced that the company has successfully identified a total of $5.5 billion in liquid assets, which he referred to as a “Herculean effort” in determining the company’s financial standing.
This includes $1.7 billion in cash, $3.5 billion in crypto assets, and $3 million in securities.
The company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in November, is currently facing potential debt of $3.1 billion to its top 50 creditors.
Ray said, “We are making important progress in our efforts to maximize recoveries, and it has taken a Herculean investigative effort from our team to uncover this preliminary information. We ask our stakeholders to understand that this information is still preliminary and subject to change.”
On Tuesday, the management team and advisers of FTX met with the committee of unsecured creditors in the company’s bankruptcy case to provide information on their progress in recovering assets.
They disclosed that they have identified a total of $5.5 billion in assets, which is slightly more than the $5 billion they had previously reported to the bankruptcy judge.
They also revealed that FTX.com and FTX US have identified shortage in digital assets. Specifically, they have identified $1.6 billion of digital assets associated with FTX.com, out of which $323 million were transferred to third parties without authorization after the bankruptcy filing and another $426 million is under the custody of Bahamas regulators.
In addition, the company has identified that $742 million in assets are currently being held in offline storage under the control of FTX’s debtors and an additional $121 million is in the process of being transferred to offline storage under the control of the debtors.
FTX stated that the assets they have identified so far are significantly less than the total amount of assets that should be present based on records of customer balances on the FTX.com platform.
The company identified $181 million in digital assets associated with FTX US, out of which $90 million were transferred to third parties without authorization after the bankruptcy filing.
The remaining $88 million is being held in offline storage under FTX debtor control and $3 million is in the process of being transferred to offline storage under debtor control. However, former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, who is facing criminal fraud charges, claims that FTX US is financially stable and can repay its customers.
