Tausi Insider

FTX was run as a “personal fiefdom” of former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, attorneys for the collapsed crypto exchange said in its first bankruptcy hearing as they detailed ongoing challenges such as hacks and substantial missing assets. In the highest-profile crypto blowup to date, FTX filed for protection in the United States after traders pulled $6 billion from the platform in three days and rival exchange Binance abandoned a rescue deal. The collapse has left an estimated 1 million creditors facing losses totalling billions of dollars. An attorney for FTX said at a bankruptcy hearing on Tuesday that the company now intends to sell off healthy business units, but has been the subject of cyberattacks and had “substantial” assets missing. FTX said on Saturday it has launched a strategic review of its global assets and is preparing for the sale or reorganization of some businesses. The hearing was held at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware and was livestreamed to around 1,50...

A group of media companies is set to argue on Friday to the U.S. judge overseeing the FTX bankruptcy that they should be allowed to request that the collapsed crypto exchange make public the names of its customers. In seeking to intervene in the case, the New York Times, Dow Jones, Bloomberg and the Financial Times said bankruptcy law demands transparency. Letting customer names remain secret could turn bankruptcy proceedings into a “farce” if creditors start fighting anonymously over how much money they should get, the media companies wrote in a Delaware bankruptcy court filing. FTX has argued the usual U.S. bankruptcy practice of disclosing names, addresses and e-mail addresses of creditors, which includes customers, could expose them to scams and could violate privacy laws for those who live in Europe. The company has also said that disclosing identities of as many as 1 million customers would make it easier for a competitor to poach them, undermining the value of FTX’s platform w...

Crypto exchange FTX has recovered more than $5-billion but the extent of customer losses in its collapse is still unknown, an attorney for the bankrupt company founded by Sam Bankman-Fried said on Wednesday. The company, which was valued a year ago at $32-billion, filed for bankruptcy in November and U.S. prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of orchestrating an “epic” fraud that may have cost investors, customers and lenders billions of dollars. “We have located over $5-billion of cash, liquid cryptocurrency and liquid investment securities,” Andy Dietderich, an attorney for FTX, told a U.S. bankruptcy judge in Delaware at the start of Wednesday’s hearing. Dietderich also said that the company plans to sell non-strategic investments that had a book value of $4.6-billion. However, Dietderich said the legal team is still working to create accurate internal records and the actual customer shortfall remains unknown. The U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission has estimated missing custo...

A group of media companies is set to argue on Friday to the U.S. judge overseeing the FTX bankruptcy that they should be allowed to request that the collapsed crypto exchange make public the names of its customers. In seeking to intervene in the case, the New York Times, Dow Jones, Bloomberg and the Financial Times said bankruptcy law demands transparency. Letting customer names remain secret could turn bankruptcy proceedings into a “farce” if creditors start fighting anonymously over how much money they should get, the media companies wrote in a Delaware bankruptcy court filing. FTX has argued the usual U.S. bankruptcy practice of disclosing names, addresses and e-mail addresses of creditors, which includes customers, could expose them to scams and could violate privacy laws for those who live in Europe. The company has also said that disclosing identities of as many as 1 million customers would make it easier for a competitor to poach them, undermining the value of FTX’s platform w...