FTX has been through bankruptcy followed by the arrest of its founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). It has since been taken over by John Ray, and things are looking up for the crypto exchange and may even be rebooted.
FTX May Come Back
Lawyers representing FTX claim that the firm recovered around $7.3 billion in liquid assets in a hearing in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Four FTX company silos had around $4.8 billion in scheduled assets in November 2022, according to debtors.
In addition to this, the fallen cryptocurrency firm may have plans to restart the exchange's operations in the second quarter of 2024. John Ray, the exchange's current CEO has thought about the reboot in an interview, as mentioned in Coin Telegraph.
Things are looking up for the exchange in terms of valuation. The price of the FTX token has increased more than two-fold. From $1.32, the value has increased to approximately $2.80, which is a 112% increase.
This is a huge improvement, given that the price of the FTX token had always stayed between $1 to $2 ever since its collapse. Despite that, the reimbursement of Sam Bankman-Fried's legal fees will not be prioritized, as mentioned in the bankruptcy hearing.
Judge John Dorsey stated that he had no evidence to establish cause and that SBF did not put out evidence whatsoever as to the balancing of the equities. He added that they were unaware of other insurance policies or assets SBF has access to.
Repaying Creditors
Back in January, FTX recovered $5 billion in liquid assets and has been cleared to conduct sales of four subsidiaries to raise funds so they may repay creditors. The $5 billion in assets include cash, securities, and liquid currencies.
The four subsidiaries in question are the units of FTX in Europe and Japan, along with two other US companies, brokerage tech and infrastructure provider Embed, and crypto derivatives platform LedgerX, as mentioned in Financial Times.
The cryptocurrency firm has appointed Perella Weinberg Partners as the investment Banker that would overlook the process of the sale. Reports say that over 100 parties are already interested in buying one or more subsidiaries.
However, the lawyer representing FTX and a partner at Sullivan and Cromwell, Andrew Dietderich said that the restructuring team headed by the FTX CEO still does not know the gap between company assets and what is owed to creditors.
Over $500 million in cash has been found in the companies that were run by Sam Bankman-Fried since November 2022. Upon disclosing the amount in court filings, the total cash holdings were then at $1.7 billion.
The names of the creditors may soon be released to the public, as the court allowed FTX to keep the names of its creditors for at least three more months in January, which was to protect sensitive commercial information that may be of value to the company.
