The FTX emblem on a laptop computer display.
Andrey Rudakov | Bloomberg through Getty Pictures
The Securities Fee of The Bahamas says it seized $3.5 billion value of cryptocurrency from collapsed crypto change FTX.
In a media launch late Thursday, the watchdog confirmed the overall sum taken from FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, FTX Digital Markets, and added that the funds had been moved into its personal digital wallets “for safekeeping.”
The regulator had beforehand confirmed it was holding a few of FTX’s digital property however didn’t specify the quantity.
The funds had been valued at greater than $3.5 billion, based mostly on market pricing on the time of switch, in keeping with the fee. The switch occurred on Nov. 12, the day after FTX filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety within the U.S.
The Bahamian securities fee stated the funds are being held on a “short-term foundation” till it’s directed by the Bahamas’ Supreme Court docket to ship them to clients and collectors, or to liquidators of the insolvency property.
The regulator stated it took the funds after receiving data from Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s disgraced co-founder, regarding cyberattacks on the programs of FTX’s Bahamian unit.
There was “vital threat of imminent dissipation” of the property underneath FTX Digital Markets’ management, it stated.
After FTX filed for chapter, it was focused in a suspected hack that noticed $477 million drained from the agency’s crypto wallets. The identification of the perpetrator will not be but identified.
The Bahamian regulator has been scrutinized over its position within the FTX collapse and subsequent authorized proceedings.
The fee wished to deal with insolvency proceedings for FTX within the Bahamas. However FTX’s U.S. legal professionals contested the transfer, alleging that the regulator coordinated with Bankman-Fried to switch FTX digital property to its personal custody.
U.S. legal professionals for FTX had refused to provide liquidators appointed by the Bahamian courtroom entry to the corporate’s laptop programs, saying, “We don’t belief the Bahamian authorities.”
Bankman-Fried, additionally FTX’s former CEO, was arrested within the Bahamas and subsequently extradited to the US, the place he’s awaiting trial on fees of fraud, conspiracy to commit cash laundering, and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and violate marketing campaign finance legal guidelines.
He was launched final week on $250 million bail, and has reportedly been receiving guests at his dad and mom’ California dwelling, together with “The Huge Quick” writer Michael Lewis.
Bankman-Fried is predicted to be arraigned and enter a plea in federal courtroom in Manhattan on Jan. 3.