FTX, FTX.US and Alameda Research File For Bankruptcy

Beleaguered cryptocurrency exchange FTX, its U.S. subsidiary FTX.US and its sister firm Alameda Research on Friday filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in a United States court. FTX stated that bankruptcy proceedings were initiated to “begin orderly process to review and monetize assets for benefit of global stakeholders.” The company also announced that its founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried will resign from his position and John J. Ray III will be appointed as the new Chief Executive. Bankman-Fried will however remain “to assist in an orderly transition.” The new incoming CEO said that the immediate relief of Chapter 11 is to provide the FTX Group the opportunity to assess its situation and develop a process to maximize recoveries for stakeholders. Full story here.

Binance CEO slams report that states exchange's reserves are full of their own tokens

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao slammed a report which said that the cryptocurrency exchange holds $74.6 billion worth of tokens, out of which, nearly 40% are its own stablecoin BUSD and native coin BNB. Sharing data provided by blockchain analytics firm provided by Nansen, the report stated that about $23 billion of the $74.6 billion net worth was in the company's own stablecoin BUSD, and $6.4 billion was in its own cryptocurrency, BNB. According to Nansen data, the exchange has also allocated 10.5% of its holdings to Bitcoin and 9.8% to Ether. Read here.

TRON Will Pump Billions In FTX: Justin Sun

Tron is prepared to pump in billions to rescue beleaguered cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the company’s founder Justin Sun said. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried told investors on Wednesday that the company needs at least $4 billion in new investment to stay afloat since it now has a shortfall of up to $8 billion. Sun entered into negotiations with FTX after Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance walked away from the deal to acquire FTX citing corporate due diligence, news reports alleging mishandled customer funds and US agency investigations against the Bahamas based exchange. Details here.

FTX.US temporarily stops processing withdrawals hours After filing for bankruptcy

FTX.US, the U.S. arm of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX temporarily stopped processing withdrawals, hours after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to on-chain data, there have been no outgoing transactions for nearly 2 hours. FTX.US on Thursday warned users that trading may be halted at any time and that users should close down any open position they might have. "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," according to a red banner announcement on the exchange's website. More here.

With more than $600M mysteriously disappearing from wallets, FTX issues a hacking alert

Without any apparent cause, more than $600 million in cryptocurrencies disappeared from the accounts of the insolvent exchange FTX. Soon after, FTX announced that the exchange had been hacked and urged users to delete all of their FTX apps and not install any new updates in its official Telegram channel. A message warning that visiting the FTX website might lead to the download of Trojans was pinned by FTX General Counsel Ryne Miller on Telegram. On-chain data shows that a number of Ethereum tokens, along with the Solana and Binance Smart Chain tokens, have left FTX's official wallets and moved to decentralised exchanges like 1inch. Read here.

Donating huge amounts to politicians is what ended up breaking FTX: Vitalik Buterin

Ethereum co-founder on Saturday took a dig FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried over his donations to political leaders and said donating large amounts to politicians is what ended up in breaking the cryptocurrency exchange. In an apparent jibe at U.S. regulators, Buterin also said FTX is headquartered in the Bahamas and that was in part motivated by a lack of a regulatory framework in the United States. “It (FTX) was an exchange run by a person who is very politically inaccurate and apparently was in the process of trying pretty hard to get some no regulation waters from the SEC. He donated a huge amount to all kinds of politicians and that was what ended up breaking it,” Buterin said. Full story here.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried looking to ‘flee’ to Dubai from the Bahamas

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, Gary Wang, the co-founder, and Nishad Singh, the director of engineering, are believed to be in the Bahamas and are "under surveillance" by the local law enforcement. According to a person with knowledge of the situation, Caroline Ellison, the CEO of Alameda Research, and the three former FTX executives are searching for a method to elude capture and travel to Dubai. The United States and the UAE signed a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) back on February 24, 2022, to cooperate in the fight against criminals, but the plan was created under the assumption that the two countries "doesn't have any extradition treaties." More here.

Crypto.com ‘Erroneously’ transfers ETH to rival exchange, Binance CEO smells rat

Crypto.com erroneously delivered more than 320,000 Ether worth around $400 million to a competing cryptocurrency exchange Gate.io on October 21 this year, according to the company’s CEO. This information was made public on Sunday after a Twitter user shared a screenshot asking why a significant amount of ether had mysteriously left Crypto.com a few weeks ago. Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek of the company responded to the tweet by claiming that a human error led to the transfer. According to Marszalek, someone his team unintentionally sent 80% or so of their ether reserves to a "whitelisted exchange." Full story here.