The platform, one of the most important in the sector, was valued at 32 billion dollars. However, it is now estimated to have an $8 billion financial hole.
The FTX cryptocurrency platform has announced this Friday that it has requested bankruptcy in the United States and that its founder and chief executive officer, Sam Bankman-FriedHe has resigned.
The decision confirms the total collapse of this platform, one of the most important in the sector, which came to be valued at $32 billion and that in recent days it collapsed due to lack of liquidity and with users rushing to withdraw their funds.
In a statement, FTX has ensured that the bankruptcy declaration is the appropriate measure to manage the company’s assets and protect the interests of its shareholders.
The process will affect some 130 affiliated companiesincluding his investment firm Alameda Research. The financial hole is estimated at about 8 billion dollars. Furthermore, FTX has been known to use billions of dollars deposited by its clients to finance risky investments.
The company has announced that the position of CEO will be assumed by John J Ray III and has said that Bankman-Fried and many of the firm’s employees will continue to work to assist the new CEO and independent professionals through the bankruptcy process.
The movement has been announced hours after the authorities of the Bahamas, where FTX is based, frozen the group’s assets and took the first steps to appoint a person in charge of liquidating one of its entities.
FTX landed in Bahamas in 2021 from Hong Kongwhere it had started operating and had established itself as one of the most successful platforms in the cryptocurrency sector.
In recent days, doubts about the company’s solvency have been triggered by various reports, prompting many users to rush to withdraw their money, leaving FTX illiquid and in search of a bailout.
FTX’s situation became even more complicated on Wednesday, when Binance -the world’s leading currency exchange platform- announced that it was withdrawing the purchase offer it had announced a day earlier, when it had offered to come to its rival’s support.
The move triggered a further crash in FTT, FTX’s digital asset, and sharp declines across the entire cryptocurrency market, just a year after bitcoin – the most important cryptocurrency – hit its all-time high.
Source: Eitb
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