Folks, there’s a ton of stuff going on out there with FTX ($FTT.X) and the contagion that could or could not spread. Until more clarity and certainty is available, we thought, instead, to share with you some quick bullets you can follow up on.
All The Big News – December 2, 2022
Accusation That FTX Misused Customer Funds Presents a ‘Prison’ Problem, Says Crypto Legal Expert Jeremy Hogan From The Daily Hodl
U.S. Trustee asks bankruptcy court to appoint FTX trustee From The Block
FTX Japan drafts plan to return client funds From Cointelegraph
Sam Bankman-Fried’s still sorry, but now he says his memory isn’t great From The Block
FTX Contagion Haunts Yet Another Crypto Trading Firm From Cryptopotato
Sam Bankman-Fried says not aware of any improper use of funds in FTX downfall From Forkast
All The Big News – November 25, 2022
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried quietly purchased major Democratic data firm From Fox News
FTX CEO stresses Bankman-Fried, Ellison no longer involved in operations From The Block
Alameda bought this obscure OTC desk to handle FTX banking From Protos
BlackRock Chief Executive Fink said firm invested $24 million in FTX From The Block
Report: Former billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried says he’s down to $100,000 in bank account From USA Today
Sam Bankman-Fried says he isn’t sure what happened to his $100 million stake in Twitter, shortly after Elon Musk claimed the crypto mogul didn’t have any shares From Yahoo! Finance
All The Big News – November 25, 2022
Online bank SoFi struggles amid FTX-inspired crypto probe From Protos
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will speak during the New York Times’ annual DealBook Summit despite ongoing FTX investigations. From CryptoNews
China was one of FTX’s biggest clients, bankruptcy filings show. From Bitcoinist
Here’s how much has been recovered since FTX’s bankruptcy filing. From CryptoPotato
All The Big News – November 23, 2022
SBF says he is deeply sorry for collapse in letter to FTX team. From Cointelegraph
Celebrity athletes Tom Brady and Steph Curry in more FTX hot water. From BeInCrypto
FTX Group hold total cash balance of $1,240,000,000: Report. From The Daily Hodl
US lawmakers ask DOJ to hold FTX execs accountable ‘to the fullest extent of the law’. From Cointelegraph
InsureAce to pay out on FTX claims, launches crypto deposit insurance to protect CEX users. From CryptoSlate
All The Big News – November 21, 2022
Sam Bankman-Fried tries to broker FTX bailout from his home in the Bahamas. From CNBC
FTX owes nearly $3.1 billion to its 50 top creditors. From CNN
US aid to Ukraine was not laundered by crypto exchange FTX. From USA Today
FTX exploiter converts million in Ethereum to Alameda Research-linked Ren Bitcoin tokens. From CoinDesk
Liquid Exchange, a crypto exchange backed by FTX, suspends trading. From Bitcoinist
All The Big News – November 18, 2022
New FTX CEO John J. Ray III says FTX’s bankruptcy was “A complete failure, worse than Enron.” From Protos
Report: FTX and Alameda likely colluded from the very beginning. From Cointelegraph
FTX’s fall was probably sparked by Terra’s ($LUNC.X), a report reveals. From Bitcoinist
Delaware Federal judge to hear FTX Trading case on Tuesday. From Forkast
FTX advisers find only $740 million crypto, while the liquidity gap stands at $8 billion. From U.Today
All The Big News – November 16, 2022
Daily Mail: FBI is planning to extradite SBF. From The Daily Mail
No joke, SBF says he wants to raise liquidity and restart business. From U.Today
R. Kiyosaki calls FTX founder Bankman-Fried the ‘Bernie Madoff of crypto.’ From Finbold
Compliance firm Argus reports that Alameda Research used insider information and front running to accumulate more than $60 million in tokens ahead of their listing on FTX. From Decrypt
The Block, citing Bloomberg, reports that Temasek, Sequoia, and SoftBank take more than $600 million in FTX write-downs. From The Block
The same attorney that sued Mark Cuban for promoting Voyager ($VGX.X) is now targeting celebrities who promoted FTX. Tom Brady, Steph Curry, and Larry David are some names identified in the lawsuit. From The Block
Crypto lender BlockFi pauses platform activity and prepares for bankruptcy. From CryptoNews
Crypto lender Salt ($SALT.X) halts withdrawals citing FTX impact. From The Block
FTX’s Australian Finance License was revoked. From BeInCrypto
FTX’s collapse is crypto’s version of Enron says former US Treasury Secretary. From The Daily Hodl
Crypto community lambasts New York Times ‘puff piece’ and ‘love letter’ to SBF. From BeInCrypto
Crypto community demands investigation into Gary Gensler’s possible ties to FTX. From Crypto Briefing
Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat axe FTX deals. From Blockworks 👿
All The Big News – November 14, 2022
Revelations, rumors and news continue to pour in. Since the beginning of SBF’s and FTX’s fall, the news has become mainstream. These are some of the major updates since Friday.
U.S. prosecutors in New York investigate FTX downfall. From Reuters
Rumors flew over the weekend that SBF fled to Argentina. When asked by Reuters if he fled the Bahamas, SBF said, “Nope.” From CNBC
Report: Sam Bankman-Fried is ‘under supervision’ in Bahamas. From Cointelegraph
Bahamas Police begin an investigation into FTX for Criminal Misconduct. From CryptoNews
Reuters reported that SBF transferred nearly $10 billion in client funds to his Alameda Research trading firm. Between $1 and $2 billion is unaccounted for. From Reuters
The Financial Times shared an alleged copy of an FTX balance sheet indicating FTX only had $900 million of assets to sell ‘easily’ – mostly in Robinhood ($HOOD) stock – despite having nearly $9 billion in liabilities. From The Financial Times
Musk told over 60,000 listeners on Twitter that his bullshit meter was redlining’ when he talked with SBF. Further, Musk dismissed even close associates praising SBF. “Then I was like, man, everyone, including major investment banks – everyone was talking about him like he’s walking on water and has a zillion dollars. And that [was] not my impression. <…>That dude is just – there’s something wrong, and he does not have capital, and he will not come through. That was my prediction.” From Finbold
Payment processor Plaid ($PLAID.P) announced on Twitter (November 12) that FTX’s access to Plaid’s products and financial information was terminated.
Plaid suspended FTX’s access to Plaid products as of 11/11/22 at approximately 10:30PM PT. FTX can no longer retrieve any financial information via Plaid, regardless of the status of your account connections through Plaid.
— Plaid (@Plaid) November 12, 2022
FTX hacked, allegedly, for $477 million? Nothing is 100% clear on that topic. Cryptocurency news site, Decrypt, aggregated a significant amount of Twitter feed data from individuals tracking and sharing massive crypto transfers from FTX to other wallets. Even Elon Musk took to Twitter to post, “FTX meltdown/ransack being tracked in real-time on Twitter.” Hacken.io’s CEO Dyma Budorin posted the following on the hacker, citing the exchange Kraken was used – which means the identity is known because Kraken uses AML/KYC.
TLDR: insider is behind @FTX_Official rug pull / exit scam
Great thread that proves to me that #ftx #hack is an insider job:
– too slow
– stupid mistakes
– kraken account involved
– hacker would have acted earlierGreat job @TobiasSilverJM to spot this https://t.co/h0PT8fBD9I
— Dyma Budorin 🇺🇦 (@buda_kyiv) November 12, 2022
US-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken froze all accounts tied to Alameda Research and FTX on Sunday.
Kraken has spoken with law enforcement regarding a handful of accounts owned by the bankrupt FTX Group, Alameda Research and their executives. Those accounts have been frozen to protect their creditors.
Other Kraken clients are not affected. Kraken maintains full reserves.
— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) November 13, 2022
The past has a way of bringing back trouble. A 2018 slide deck from Alameda Research showed Alameda told potential investors that offers and loans had no downside, no risk, and high returns. From CryptoGlobe
Visa ($V) terminates FTX Debit Card Program. From CryptoPotato 👎
All The Big News – November 11, 2022
FTX’s Twitter released a statement that they have entered Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.
Press Release pic.twitter.com/rgxq3QSBqm
— FTX (@FTX_Official) November 11, 2022
Minnesota Congressman Tom Emmer took to Twitter and alleges that SEC Chair Gary Gensler collaborated with SBF to gain a regulatory monopoly. Emmer says his office is looking into those reports. He further criticized Gensler for going on CNBC and creating more fear.
Interesting. @GaryGensler runs to the media while reports to my office allege he was helping SBF and FTX work on legal loopholes to obtain a regulatory monopoly. We're looking into this. https://t.co/SznowgcP6V
— Tom Emmer (@RepTomEmmer) November 10, 2022
A mega-thread from SBF’s Twitter highlights his mistakes, granting clarity and admitting a huge liquidity crisis.
1) I'm sorry. That's the biggest thing.
I fucked up, and should have done better.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 10, 2022
Bloomberg: FTX.US employees are reportedly trying to sell assets without SBF’s inclusion. The attempted sales include big-ticket assets like the clearing platform Embed and the naming rights to a Miami, FL arena – most likely the FTX Arena, where the Miami Heat play. From The Block
FTX.US’s website and, reportedly, the app shared the following message/alert: “Trading may be halted on FTX US in a few days. Please close down any positions you want to close down. Withdrawals are and will remain open. We will give updates as we have them.” From The Daily Hodl
The Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan ordered FTX Japan to suspend its derivatives business and prevent any new deposits until December 9, 2022. From CoinTelegraph
The Bahamas Securities Commission (BSC) froze FTX Digital Markets (FTX.com) and related parties’ assets. The BSC also suspended their registration and got approval from the Bahamian Supreme Court to appoint a liquidator. From CoinTelegraph
On-chain analytics firm, Glassnode, took Twitter and reported large outflows of Bitcoin ($BTC.X) were in excess of 75% from FTX.
What we have seen is significant outflows from FTX, with the estimated balance declining by ~75% from 20k $BTC to around $5.5k $BTC.
Across all other exchanges, we saw inflows during the panic, however this has almost entirely reversed, leaving exchanges balances flat since Mon. pic.twitter.com/6FzcSF7HOM
— glassnode (@glassnode) November 9, 2022
Reuters reports that FTX used customer funds to prop up SBF’s Alameda Research. From Rueters
SEC Chair Gary Gensler spoke with Aaron Ross Sorkin, a CNBC’s Squawk Box host. Gensler called the field (crypto) “… significantly non-compliant.” From CNBC’s YouTube channel
CEO of Jefferies Financial Group, Richard Handler, shared screenshots on Twitter allegedly between him and other redacted parties (possibly SBF was included in the emails). Richard Handler wanted to warn FTX about their problems back in July 2022.
My personal email trail on my non-meeting with #FTX! #lessons
— Rich Handler (@HandlerRich) November 10, 2022
As the news continues to pile up, we’ll do our best to keep you updated. 🍿