Cryptocurrencies: FTX claims to make “every effort” to secure assets

The new boss of FTX, the now bankrupt cryptocurrency giant, assured Saturday that the company was doing "everything to secure all assets" after unauthorized transactions.

FTX officials did not provide details on the amount of transactions observed, but several hundred million dollars may have disappeared.

“Unauthorized access to certain assets has occurred,” explained John Ray, new CEO and head of group restructuring.

This replaced Friday at the head of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried, its founder, who had just resigned.

The cryptocurrency exchange platform, a very little regulated sector, had the same day placed under the protection of Chapter 11 of the American bankruptcy law.

The cryptocurrency analysis firm Elliptic indicates, in an analysis published on Saturday, that “only 24 hours after the bankruptcy filing (…), the portfolios of FTX have been emptied of more than 663 million dollars”.

In detail, "$477 million was allegedly stolen, while the rest was transferred to secure storage by FTX itself," Elliptic said.

The company tries to reassure

FTX, which was still considered the second largest cryptocurrency platform in the world ten days ago and was valued at some $32 billion, suffered a lightning rout.

The company is now trying to reassure.

“Among other things, we are in the process of removing trading and withdrawal functionality and transferring as many digital assets as possible to a new cold wallet custodian,” i.e. a wallet not connected to the internet. intended to store cryptocurrency, detailed the new boss of FTX in a statement published on Twitter by Ryne Miller, legal director of FTX.

2/ Among other things, we are in the process of removing trading and withdrawal functionality and moving as many digital assets as can be identified to a new cold wallet custodian.

As widely reported, unauthorized access to certain assets has occurred.

— Ryne Miller (@_Ryne_Miller) November 12, 2022

John Ray also specified that “an active examination of the facts (…) was launched immediately in response.

We have been in contact and are coordinating with relevant law enforcement and regulators.”

“Unclear facts”

Friday marked a turning point for FTX after a week of turmoil.

Its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, considered to be at the origin of one of the most influential successes in the world of cryptocurrency and so far a multi-billionaire, resigned and was replaced in the process by John Ray .

Then, overnight, FTX's chief legal officer, Ryne Miller, tweeted about an "investigation into anomalies with portfolio movements related to the consolidation of FTX balances between exchanges", and referred to " unclear facts because other movements are unclear”.

He then said on Saturday morning that “unauthorized transactions” had been observed, and that the platform had “taken precautionary measures to move all digital assets to cold storage”.

“The process was expedited (Friday) evening – to mitigate the damage when observing unauthorized transactions,” he said.