FTX Trading, doing business as FTX.com, was one of around 130 subsidiaries of FTX Group that filed for bankruptcy in November after the company’s stated liquidity crisis.
John Ray, who took over as CEO of the FTX bitcoin exchange prior to its filing for bankruptcy, allegedly established a task team to examine relaunching FTX.com.
The Wall Street Journal reported on January 19 that Ray said that all options for the future of FTX.com were “on the table,” including the possibility of resetting the exchange. FTX Trading, doing business as FTX.com, was one of around 130 FTX Group subsidiaries to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November.
Ray allegedly considered reinstating the cryptocurrency exchange as part of his attempts to compensate consumers. FTX announced on January 17 that its investigations had uncovered over $5.5 billion in liquid assets, with more than $3 billion owing to its top 50 debtors. According to the chief executive officer of FTX, he considered input from stakeholders who saw the exchange as a “sustainable business.”
In 2022, the collapse of FTX and ensuing criminal charges against a number of its leaders resonated across the crypto world. Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang have pled guilty to fraud charges, although Sam Bankman-Fried, Ray’s predecessor, has mostly contested the claims against him. He entered a not-guilty plea and is slated to stand trial in October.
Ray was apparently supported by Wang and Ellison in locating some of the company’s assets, although he and Bankman-Fried routinely exchange insults. Prior to the company’s bankruptcy, the previous CEO said he was persuaded by Sullivan & Crowell and the FTX US general counsel to choose Ray as the next CEO of FTX. Ray has also said that Bankman-Fried is no longer employed by the exchange and cannot speak for it.
Ray allegedly added, in reference to Bankman-Fried, “We have no need for dialogue with him.” “He has not revealed anything to us that I did not already know.”
SBF said in a post dated January 12 on a “pre-mortem analysis” of FTX that if the exchange were to “reboot,” it may be able to compensate users using on-hand assets. The team overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings and Bankman-Fried have openly differed on methods for assessing FTX’s balance sheet, with the former CEO asserting that FTX US was “completely solvent.”
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