The bankrupt FTX exchange has accumulated $4.4 billion through the sale of crypto assets

The amount of funds to compensate the affected clients of the bankrupt FTX crypto exchange has almost doubled due to market growth and the massive sale of surviving crypto assets, Bloomberg reports.

After the collapse of FTX in November 2022, its management is working to return funds to investors and creditors. FTX management is currently exploring options for resuming the site's operation. According to court documents, the total amount of customer claims against FTX and its subsidiaries is $16 billion.

In August 2023, FTX representatives announced that they would begin to sell the assets of the exchange that they could access, building strategies to maximize income from them. At the end of November, the management of the bankrupt crypto exchange received court permission to sell shares in Grayscale trusts. Lawsuits have also been filed against former partners of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and other companies, such as the Bybit exchange, who withdrew funds from FTX before filing for bankruptcy.

According to FTX reports, since December 8, the liquidators of the exchange have sold its assets in the amount of $1.8 billion, and in January of this year they repaid the shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) for $ 1 billion after its conversion into a bitcoin ETF.

According to the company's reports, the cash volume of FTX's four main subsidiaries, including FTX Trading and its affiliated fund Alameda Research, has almost doubled, reaching $4.4 billion by the end of 2023 compared to October 2023 ($2.3 billion). Asset sales from the investments of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in the AI startup Anthropic, which Amazon became interested in, contributed to much of the growth. The exchange also trades bitcoin derivatives to hedge risks and generate additional income.

Client claims in the amount of $1 million or more are traded with specialized brokers at the rate of $0.73 per dollar, although back in October last year they cost almost half as much. Nevertheless, FTX does not expect full repayment of user losses. Dozens of FTX clients are challenging the company's proposal, according to which the value of their assets will be calculated at the rate at the time of filing for bankruptcy (at a bitcoin price of about $ 17 thousand). Payment of compensation at such a rate will mean that they completely missed the growth of the crypto market in 2023.

Source: RBC