The trial for one of the biggest fraud cases in more than a decade is still nearly nine months away. Still, it seems nearly every day new information is uncovered about FTX, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange.
FTX has $5.5 billion in liquid assets
This week, FTX reported to creditors that it has recovered $5.5 billion in liquid assets to date, $3.5 billion of which came from cryptocurrency tokens like Solana and FTX’s own token, FTT. The company, which filed for bankruptcy in November, also told creditors that $415 million in cryptocurrency was stolen from the FTX and FTX U.S. exchanges through hacks.
Based on the funds available, FTX said, “there is a substantial shortfall of digital assets at both exchanges.”
But founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who has been cut off from company ledgers since stepping down as CEO in November, called part of the company’s report “extremely misleading.” He claimed on his Substack page that FTX U.S. is “solvent, likely with hundreds of millions of dollars in excess of customer balances.”
It’s an unusually detailed and unbridled defense for a man facing eight criminal counts related to fraud, money laundering and violating campaign finance laws.
1 in 3 members of Congress received campaign donations from FTX executives
While Bankman-Fried’s campaign contributions have been widely reported to date, CoinDesk revealed a much greater extent of political play from many senior FTX executives.
According to the new report, more than one in three members of Congress have received campaign donations from top executives, totaling 196 members from the House and Senate. These range from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., all the way down to new members of Congress just sworn in for the first time.
CoinDesk said they reached out to all 196, and said many who responded said they handed the funds over to charities, while others said they have set aside the donations to compensate FTX victims if a fund is set up down the road.
Cryptocurrency comeback?
The sudden FTX collapse cratered the cryptocurrency sphere in November, with tokens and exchanges diving in value and stability in the days and weeks that followed.
But this week, Bitcoin lifted above $21,000 for multiple days, recovering all of its losses from the fallout of the FTX collapse. Other coins have followed suit, including FTX’s own token, FTT, which was up 150% in January as of Jan. 17.
That said, the suffering continues elsewhere as cryptocurrency firm Genesis Global Capital is preparing to file for bankruptcy as soon as this week, according to Bloomberg. Genesis had suspended withdrawals soon after FTX filed for bankruptcy.
