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Jan 27,2023

How much of FTX debt has so far been recovered?

FTX declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy after failing to meet customer withdrawal requests. SBF was later charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the US Department of Justice for his involvement in the entire saga (DOJ). Since then, the crypto community has been waiting for a decision in the case.

The FTX collapse was one of the most shocking events in cryptocurrency history. FTX, founded by ex-CEO Samuel Bankman-Fried (SBF), was the world second-largest centralised cryptocurrency exchange, handling user funds worth billions of dollars.

SBF was later charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the US Department of Justice for his involvement in the entire saga (DOJ). Since then, the cryptocommuniFTX exchange has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after failing to meet customer withdrawal requests. SBF was later charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the US Department of Justice for his involvement in the entire saga (DOJ). Since then, the crypto community has been waiting for a decision in the case. Ty has been waiting for the case outcome with bated breath.

At the same time, hundreds of thousands of investors are closely following the court proceedings, wondering if they will ever see their money again. Fortunately, prosecutors on the case and FTX restructuring team were able to seize/recover a substantial amount of funds associated with the exchange and its founder, SBF. Here a look at some of the seized/recovered funds and what they mean for ill-fated crypto exchange investors.

Robinhood shares seized

Federal prosecutors revealed that they seized more than $698 million in funds linked to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried between January 1 and January 20. These findings were made public as part of a court filing submitted by US Attorney Damian Williams on January 20.

The majority of the seized funds were made up of Robinhood stock; 55.3 million shares in total, worth approximately $525 million at current prices. These shares were held by Emergent Fidelity Technologies, an Antigua-based shell company founded by SBF and FTX co-founder Gary Wang.

Prosecutors also seized $100 million and $50 million in accounts held by Silvergate Bank and Farmington State Bank, respectively. These accounts allegedly belonged to FTX Digital Markets, FTX Bahamas-based subsidiary.

The restructuring team recovers $5.5 billion

Another encouraging development was the announcement by FTX restructuring team that they were able to recover $5.5 billion in cash, crypto holdings, and other assets. These details were revealed by FTX lead attorney Adam Landis during a court hearing in Delaware on January 11.

Almost $3.5 billion of the recovered funds, according to Landis, were crypto assets, including $268 million in BTC, $245 million in stablecoins, and $42 million in Dogecoin. The lawyers also stated that $1.2 billion in FTX crypto assets were held at other cryptocurrency exchanges.

According to the restructuring team, these crypto assets can be easily converted to cash. However, the size of the holdings was so large that if sold on the open market, they could have an impact on prices.

FTX is given the green light to divest regional operations and other subsidiaries

On January 13, a judge overseeing the FTX proceedings granted permission to the restructuring team to sell some of its subsidiaries and regional arms. FTX Japan and FTX Europe are among them, as are the equities trading platform Embed Technologies and the derivatives exchange LedgerX LLC.

The court appointed Perella Weinberg, an investment bank, to oversee the sale process. It also set bid deadlines for Embed, LedgerX, and the other two FTX arms of January 18, January 25, and February 1, respectively. Perella, according to Kevin Cofsky, a partner, had received bids from nearly 120 interested parties. The sale of these assets is expected to bring a sizable sum of money back into FTX coffers.

Will it, however, be sufficient to cover customer debt?

According to estimates, over nine million FTX customers owe between $1 billion and $10 billion in total. If these estimates are correct, the recovered/seized amounts do not even come close to the total amount owed.

However, it has only been a few months since FTX declared bankruptcy. As a result, there is always the possibility of additional recoveries in the months ahead. Furthermore, the sale of FTX subsidiaries and regional arms could generate significant funds. However, it is unknown how much money the sales will generate. The only certainty is that FTX debtors will have to wait several years before any funds are returned. We can only wait and watch until then.