A list of the top 50 creditors of the FTX group of companies has been filed with the bankruptcy court, and the total sum is $3.1 billion.
The two main creditors owe $226m and £203m. None of the creditors’ names are on the list, in line with a request by FTX to protect the identities of its customers for commercial competitiveness reasons.
The 50th largest creditor owes $21.3 million.
Today’s filing reveals the first concrete details regarding the shape of the FTX companies’ liabilities, which are believed to be around $10 billion.
Crypto Prices Tumble After Latest FTX News
Bitcoin and other crypto prices have weakened since the news broke, with the total crypto market cap down 1.93% to $821 billion.
Bitcoin slid 1.2% in the past 24 hours, trading at $16.497, Ethereum is down 3% at $1,166, and Dogecoin is down 6% at $0.079.
However, poor record keeping by FTX means that new CEO John Ray cannot be absolutely sure that the top 50 list is accurate.
Additionally, the delay in filing the listing, which is a requirement of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, is due to the dismal state of the FTX companies’ records.
In the notice filed with the court, it is stated; “…the Top 50 list is based on currently available debtor creditor information, including customer information that may have been accessed but is not otherwise accessible at this time. The debtors’ investigation is continuing regarding the amounts shown, including payments which may have been made but are not yet reflected in the debtors’ books and records. Debtors also strive to obtain full access to customer data. »
Ray characterized governance at FTX as a “Complete failure of company controls” and the worst he’s ever seen in his career, which includes cleaning up the mess after Enron’s infamous 2007 collapse.
FTX’s Top 10 Creditors Owe Over $100 Million Each
The consolidated list of creditors shows the largest unsecured claims, although it may include secured creditors when the security is now insufficient, thus placing the creditor in the list of unsecured claims.
The top 10 creditors alone owe more than $100 million each and are likely to include hedge funds and other financial firms that have traded on the stock exchange, as well as crypto entities such as lenders.
FTX could have up to a million creditors and disputes over debt aging will determine which gets paid first.
This has become a point of contention in other crypto bankruptcies, such as Travel Digital, whether or not a financial institution with an account in a crypto exchange would be more senior debt than other unsecured creditors such as retail customers.
Crypto exchanges are constituted in a markedly different way to the division of labor that exists in traditional finance. Companies like FTX are part bank, part broker, and part exchange. This means that they will act as custodians and hold large amounts of capital on behalf of clients.
The top 50 list can be viewed here:
https://cases.ra.kroll.com/FTX/Home-DownloadPDF?id1=MjMxNDUwMA==&id2=-1
Other court documents can be viewed here:
https://cases.ra.kroll.com/FTX/Home-DocketInfo
Ellison, Wang and Singh all fired, CEO Ray makes $1,300 an hour
In other court documents, it appeared that Caroline EllisonGary Wang and Nishad Singh have been sacked.
In addition, the total workforce of FTX employees at the time of filing for bankruptcy was 330 people based in 29 countries, in addition to contractors. Of the directly employed employees, 140 work in the United States.
The documents state that “the Debtors continue to review personnel issues and anticipate, depending on the nature of the Debtors’ business, that a large number of employees will be required to continue working for the Debtors for the foreseeable future.”
CEO John Ray is paid $1,300 an hour for his services and a deposit of $200,000.
The court’s first day session will take place on Tuesday, November 22 at 11 a.m. ET, with Judge John T Dorsey presiding.
Vitalik Buterin: “Anything centralized is suspect by default”
In other news, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin described the FTX implosion as a “huge tragedy.”
But he added, “That said, many in the Ethereum community also see the situation as validation of what they’ve always believed in: anything centralized is suspect by default.”
For Buterin, the case is a vindication of the correctness of trusting “open transparent code above individual humans”. He noted that the DeFi protocols worked “perfectly”.
On Sam Bankman-Fried, Buterin tweeted:
Additionally, bitcoin’s relative strength bodes well for the future recovery, according to one trader:
Elsewhere, centralized exchanges continue to attempt to communicate their reliability. To this end, Coinbase advertised in the Wall Street Journal:
The coming week could, in the FTX contagion story, see Digital Currency Group (DCG) take center stage and in particular the two companies it owns, Genesis and Grayscale Investments, the latter of which is the issuer of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
Unconfirmed rumors (see tweet below) are circulating that a previously undisclosed promissory note shows DCG owes Genesis $1.1 billion. Last week, Genesis halted withdrawals from its Genesis Earn yield-generating product.
DCG is the largest crypto conglomerate and owns news site Coindesk as well as investments in as many as 200 companies, according to some estimates. Research site Messari puts DCG’s disclosed venture capital investments at 114. DCG is a major investor in Messari.
Meanwhile, in France respected broker Coinhouse revealed that he had exposure to Genesis and therefore halted withdrawals from his flagship savings account.
Cryptonews conducted a exclusive interview with CEO Nicolas Louvet about a week ago.
In this interview, Louvet spoke about the need for better regulation in the industry and suggested that if there were more professionals from the venture capital world involved and independent auditors and rating agencies, then things could be cleaned up.
Looks like Coinhouse may have failed in its own due diligence, though to be fair, it didn’t have to be known that FTX was going to fail and bring down Genesis – or at least its Earn product – in the process.
Crypto Winter Will Be Longer But There Are Positives
IFTX has certainly rolled back the crypt and risks prolonging the winter. Nevertheless, even at this stage, there are profitable opportunities for savvy traders and investors.
So if you’re looking to add alpha to your portfolio, a good place to start is the presale sector, and we’ve got two great propositions for your watchlist – Dash 2 Exchange (D2T) and RobotEra (TORA).
Dash 2 Trade is the perfect antidote for a post-FTX world – its trade intelligence tools, signals and metrics will help traders and investors spot problems and stay clear.
In a vote of confidence in the project, Bank and, more recently, bit-mart both signed deals to list the token after its pre-sale ends. You can buy D2T now in presale for $0.0513.
The second project is RobotErawhich could be the next hot metaverse gaming project.
The game platform is similar to The Sandbox but better – you build planets using robots. Its TARO token is on sale now for $0.020. Just days after his presale started, he’s already raised $100,000.