FTX admits $400m hack but declares $5.5bn in digital assets

Despite admitting to being hacked to the tune of more than $400 million, liquidated cryptocurrency platform FTX says it has $1.7 billion in cash, $3.5 billion in crypto assets, and $0.3 billion in securities. This may come as a relief to its top creditors, who are owed around $3 billion – but millions still remain unaccounted for.

The bankrupt platform, which is mired in scandal as its former head Sam Bankman-Fried faces fraud charges that could put him in jail for the rest of his life, was once considered the world’s most regulated of its kind.

The hacking came to light when FTX Debtors said it had identified two separate sums of $323 million and $90 million as being “subject to unauthorized third-party transfers” since the petition on November 11, and another $426 million that was put in cold storage with the Securities Commission in the Bahamas, where Bankman-Fried fled prior to his arrest and subsequent charging.

FTX may well now qualify as the world’s most indebted platform, although its statement released on PR Newswire this week suggests that it may have enough to pay back its 50 largest creditors at least. But it also emerged during the bankruptcy investigation that $416 million

"We are making important progress in our efforts to maximize recoveries, and it has taken a Herculean investigative effort from our team to uncover this preliminary information," said John Ray, the Chief Executive Officer of FTX Debtors. "We ask our stakeholders to understand that this information is still preliminary and subject to change. We will provide additional information as soon as we are able to do so."

Nevertheless, according to the same statement, “based on current estimates of the amount of digital assets associated with the FTX.com and FTX US exchanges as of the Petition Date, there is a substantial shortfall of digital assets at both exchanges.”

Another $742 million is being kept in cold storage by FTX Debtors, with a further $121 million pending transfer to its care.

“The assets identified as of the Petition Date are substantially less than the aggregate third-party customer balances suggested by the electronic ledger for FTX.com,” said the statement.

The case continues.