BitGo, the firm tasked with locking down the crypto assets of bankrupt crypto exchange firm FTX, has recovered $740 million worth of assets so far, revealed a recent court filing.
The assets are now locked in “cold storage” in South Dakota. In cold storage, crypto assets are held in hard drives that are not connected to the internet and are thus considered to be the most secure storage.
The company owed $3.1 billion to its top 50 creditors, with the top three being owed over $500 million. In total, FTX believes that over a million creditors might be affected by the bankruptcy.
FTX Debtors, Employees
During FTX’s first bankruptcy hearing in Delaware on Nov. 22, it was revealed that there were more than 100 debtors tied to the group. “You have witnessed probably one of the most abrupt and difficult collapses in the history of corporate America,” an FTX attorney said, according to CoinDesk.Calling the case an “unprecedented matter,” James Bromley of Sullivan and Cromwell, representing FTX, said that a “substantial amount” of the company’s assets are either missing or stolen.
Last fall, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried offered staff an opportunity to buy the company’s shares at 50 percent discount to what certain venture capitalists paid at that time. Now the value of FTT has crashed and the shares of FTX are practically worthless.
Speaking to the media outlet, Nathaniel Whittemore, a former FTX marketing specialist who quit the firm, said that the average employee at the company is “devastated.”
“Not only did it seem they might be out of job, but they also were potentially facing the total loss of their savings. All I could think of was rage and white-hot anger.”