Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has reportedly recovered more than $7.3 billion in assets and wants to reboot its business by allowing customers to trade crypto again. Whether anyone trusts the company founded by disgraced CEO and Democrat super donor Sam Bankman-Fried is another question.
At a bankruptcy court hearing in Delaware on Wednesday, FTX attorney Andy Dietderich said the company has recovered an increase of more than $800 million since January, and that FTX is starting to think about its future, according to a report by Reuters.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (second on left) is led away in handcuffs by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force in Nassau, Bahamas, on December 13, 2022. (MARIO DUNCANSON/AFP via Getty Images)
“The situation has stabilized, and the dumpster fire is out,” Dietderich said. The FTX attorney added that the company has benefited from the recent rise in crypto prices.
As for the company’s future, FTX is reportedly negotiating with stakeholders about options for restarting its cryptocurrency exchange, and a decision about that may be made during this quarter, Dietderich said.
It remains unclear what the FTX reboot might mean for customers whose cryptocurrency have been locked up during the company’s bankruptcy case.
But so far, FTX customers in Japan have reportedly been the only customers able to withdraw funds. This is due to Japan having stronger crypto regulations, Dietderich said.
The lawyer added that FTX would need significant capital in order to restart its cryptocurrency exchange, and that restarting the company might require outside funding or a sale of the exchange’s assets.
Dietderich also noted that the FTX app didn’t have much to do with the movement of money behind the scenes.
“The app worked beautifully, but in truth it was a facade,” he said.
In November, FTX had a sudden collapse after the company’s disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried told investors that the crypto exchange was facing a major shortfall of up to $8 billion from withdrawal requests and needed emergency funding.
Around that time, Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, had also shut down. Shortly after that, FTX filed for bankruptcy.
Bankman-Fried was later arrested in December, and pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud and money laundering. He was also released on a $250 million bond, which was co-signed by his parents and two anonymous guarantors.
Last month, the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged in a new indictment that Bankman-Fried paid over $40 million in bribes to at least one Chinese government official. He will stand trail in October.
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