An estimated $136 billion in petition-date assets of the troubled cryptocurrency exchange FTX were disclosed by the Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) team on Friday. “FTX was never bankrupt, even when its lawyers put it in bankruptcy,” they assert.
The SBF team was chastised by the cryptocurrency community for disseminating false information, and calls to not pardon him increased. He is still not trusted by the community.
Were creditors paid?
“FTX was never insolvent,” the SBF team said in an X(Twitter) post on October 31, along with a document showing where all the money went.
The group further stated that when the exchange’s attorneys filed for bankruptcy protection, $8 billion in customer assets owing never left the exchange.
About 98% of debtors have already paid back 120%. They say that every consumer will get a payback of between 119% and 143%. Three years after the November 2022 crash, the estate still has $8 billion after paying back $8 billion in claims and $1 billion in legal expenses.
“It was on track to be resolved by the end of the month – that is, until FTX’s external counsel seized control,” said SBF.
According to K5 Global, the cryptocurrency exchange’s petition-date assets are now believed to be $136 billion, comprising $14.3 billion in Anthropic equities, $7.6 billion in Robinhood (HOOD) stock, $1.2 billion in Genesis Digital Assets, and $600 million in SpaceX.
Crypto community slams SBF
ZachXBT, a blockchain expert, has accused SBF of disseminating false information about the insolvency of FTX. ZachXBT revealed on October 31 that creditors were paid according to November 2022 cryptocurrency rates, resulting in significant losses for consumers with assets like SOL or BTC.
The recent increase in the value of illiquid assets, he stressed, was only fortuitous. ZachXBT accused SBF of continuing to make the same mistakes and not learning from his prison experience.
The cryptocurrency community feels that Sam Bankman-Fried should stay behind bars and that President Donald Trump shouldn’t pardon him in response to Democratic pressure.
CZ, the creator of Binance, has asserted that everyone who is hostile toward him, including Gary Gensler, Elizabeth Warren, and Maxine Waters, is an SBF supporter.
Interestingly, now, several of the attorneys from Sullivan & Cromwell LLP who handled Trump’s conviction this year have connections. As Trump pardoned CZ last week, there was a great deal of conjecture that SBF would also receive a pardon.
Also Read: SBF Says His ‘Biggest Mistake’ Was Handing FTX To New Management