The FTX brand on a laptop computer display.
Andrey Rudakov | Bloomberg through Getty Images
The Securities Commission of The Bahamas says it seized $3.5 billion value of cryptocurrency from collapsed crypto alternate FTX.
In a media launch late Wednesday, the watchdog confirmed the full sum taken from FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, FTX Digital Markets, and added that the funds have been moved into its personal digital wallets “for safekeeping.”
The regulator had previously confirmed it was holding a few of FTX’s digital property however didn’t specify the quantity.
The funds have been valued at over $3.5 billion, primarily based on market pricing on the time of switch, in response to the Commission. The switch happened 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 “temporary basis” till it’s directed by the nation’s Supreme Court 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 methods of FTX’s Bahamian unit.
There was “significant risk of imminent dissipation” of the property below 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 shouldn’t be but identified.
The Bahamian regulator has been scrutinized over its function within the FTX collapse and subsequent authorized proceedings.
The Commission needed to deal with insolvency proceedings for FTX within the Bahamas. But FTX’s U.S. legal professionals contested the transfer, alleging that it coordinated with Bankman-Fried to switch FTX digital property to its personal custody.
U.S. legal professionals for FTX had refused to present liquidators appointed by the Bahamian courtroom entry to the corporate’s pc methods, saying: “We do not trust the Bahamian government.”
FTX’s former CEO Bankman-Fried was arrested within the Bahamas and subsequently extradited to the United States, the place he’s awaiting trial on prices 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 in his California household house, together with “The Big Short” creator Michael Lewis.
Bankman-Fried is predicted to be arraigned and enter a plea in federal courtroom in Manhattan on Jan. 3, in response to a Reuters report.