In a recent development involving bankrupt cryptocurrency firms FTX and Alameda Research, these entities have transferred $10.8 million worth of crypto assets to three major exchanges: Wintermute, Binance, and Coinbase. This transaction involved eight different cryptocurrencies and is part of a broader series of transfers by FTX and Alameda since October 2023, amounting to a total of $551 million encompassing 59 different tokens.
The detailed breakdown of the $10.8 million transfer includes $2.58 million in StepN’s GMT, $2.41 million in Uniswap UNI -2.04%’s UNI, $2.25 million in Synapse’s SYN, $1.64 million in Klaytn’s KLAY, $1.18 million in Fantom’s FTM, and $644,000 in Shiba Inu (SHIB), with smaller amounts in Arbitrum’s ARB and Optimism’s OP.
This is not the first instance of such activity from these companies. On November 14, 2023, FTX and Alameda transferred $24 million worth of crypto assets to Kraken and OKX exchanges. This series of asset transfers is rooted in ongoing efforts to liquidate FTX’s digital assets and settle creditor claims. A U.S. court approved a plan in November 2023 to sell FTX’s digital assets, with a weekly limit of $100 million per position, which can be increased to $200 million with the approval of a special committee.
The movement of funds by FTX and Alameda dates back to March 2023, when they initiated the process of recovering assets for investors. At that time, three wallets associated with them moved $145 million worth of stablecoins to various platforms, including Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken. Despite having recovered over $5 billion in cash and liquid cryptocurrencies, FTX’s total liabilities exceeded $8.8 billion, indicating the company’s severe financial distress.
The ongoing asset liquidations by FTX and Alameda are expected to continue as the companies seek to settle their substantial debts and provide some relief to their creditors. The future of these companies and their remaining assets remains uncertain, but the liquidation process is ongoing.