The day before, details of the financial situation of crypto-exchange FTX emerged online, and it is now extremely negative. As it turned out, the company owes its former customers the equivalent of $1.59 billion in bitcoins, but it only has BTC worth a million dollars at its disposal.

As a result of their work, liquidators were able to find the following assets:

• $3.5 billion in liquid coins along the lines of BTC and ETH;
• 1.7 billion in cash;
• 800 million in illiquid tokens like SRM and MAPS;
• 500 million in a native token on the FTX crypto exchange called FTT;
• 250 million in equities, most of which are represented by GBTC.

It is important to realise that the FTT tokens mentioned have depreciated significantly. Today, FTT is valued at $1.24, down 98.5 per cent from its all-time high. Which means this situation has dealt a serious blow to the bankrupt’s finances.

As a result, experts have concluded that the company’s liquid assets amount to 5.5 billion, while its liabilities to customers amount to 11.5 billion. Which means it is $6 billion short of assets to match the figures.

What will happen to the FTX crypto exchange

The judge also noted that the appointment of an independent expert would require funds that could potentially be returned to investors and creditors affected by the trading platform’s bankruptcy. He estimated that the investigation could cost at least $100 million, with the cost falling on the shoulders of former FTX customers.

That is, in this case, such costs could complicate the already difficult situation of the bankrupt's finances. Now the liquidators of the giant are making efforts to find all possible sources of assets of the company, which will allow to pay obligations to creditors or former users of the trading platform. However, it is already clear that there are not enough billions of dollars to do so, which means that it is quite difficult to expect victims of FTX's collapse to receive the full amount. And even if the money is recovered in relatively large sums, it could take years.

A request for the appointment of an independent expert was first made by a representative of the US Department of Justice in December 2022. At the time he argued that the “extraordinary” nature of the FTX collapse called for an independent investigation, similar to the procedures involved in the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual Bank. Here is an appropriate rejoinder to that effect.

The issues at stake here are too big and important to be left to an internal investigation. An independent expert will be able to maintain neutrality vis-à-vis all concerned.

The subject of neutrality is not raised here by chance. After all, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has previously tried to contact former and current employees of the platform, and offered them meetings. As a result, such activity could be seen as attempts to influence witnesses.

According to Decrypt’s sources, after the bankruptcy was officially declared, then-CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried left his post. His place has been taken by lawyer John Ray III, who has a decent amount of experience in liquidating large bankrupt corporations. Ray said last month that the independent experts’ reports had not been useful in previous bankruptcy proceedings in which he had been involved.

The creditors’ committee and other FTX representatives protested against the US Justice Department commissioner’s statement. They said the appointment of an independent expert would only lead to the re-doing of much of the work already done under Ray’s leadership.

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Meanwhile, FTX-affiliated trading firm Alameda Research has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the exchange against firm Grayscale Investments to recover investments that were allegedly illegally taken from Alameda clients. Information about the lawsuit was confirmed by John Ray III. He noted that Grayscale is suspected of mismanagement of funds and breach of trust agreement.

The lawsuit notes that Grayscale has received more than $1.3 billion in inflated fund management fees over the past two years under the terms of the trust agreement. In other words, the firm was found to have allegedly exceeded its own powers and attempted to make money out of it. Now that those affected by the collapse of FTX care about every dollar recovered, representatives of the exchange are determined to be as aggressive as possible in obtaining any compensation.

FTX lawyers had previously demanded that politicians return the money that had been donated to them from platform founder Sam Bankman-Fried and other representatives of the company. This was done in a rather harsh manner. Read more about the situation here.

FTX lawyers are confident that if Grayscale had reduced fees and allowed investors to withdraw their money, FTX lenders’ shares would be worth almost 90 per cent more than they are now, which is at least $550 million. FTX creditors are now awaiting an injunction to unlock $9 billion in capital in the form of Grayscale crypto shares.

Grayscale Investments is a subsidiary of venture capital firm Digital Currency Group, which has already been featured in troubled conflicts since earlier this year. Earlier, the founders of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, represented by the Winklevoss brothers, demanded the resignation of DGC chief Barry Silbert. In addition, DGC is under investigation by the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).


The situation does not seem to be getting any better for those involved in the FTX proceedings. The cryptocurrency exchange was previously investigated by various US agencies, and Sam Bankman-Friede's former colleagues have agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. The trial, scheduled for October 2023, is therefore expected to be interesting.