This week is dominated by the likely bankruptcy of the well-known crypto exchange FTX. At first it looked like Binance would take over the company, but unfortunately that deal is not going through. FTX is therefore looking for new capital to get out of trouble.
FTX has lots of money required
That writes The Wall Street Journal based on anonymous sources. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (also known as ‘SBF’) seeks $8 billion in emergency capital to bring the company back to stability. He is thinking of $3 to $4 billion in equity capital and the rest in debt.
Unfortunately, Binance has abandoned the intended deal, FTX’s balance sheet would not look very good. So the money will have to come from somewhere else, and possibly even from investors who haven’t invested in FTX before. Collecting money could therefore not be too easy, but unfortunately the platform will probably only be stable again after this.
Many companies have gone out of business in recent months, including Celsius, Hodlnaut and Voyager. FTX has provided a bailout for the latter. Unfortunately, it often takes a long time before investors can get their money back, and often you do not just get your entire amount back. Even compensating for the collapsed crypto exchange Mt. Gox hasn’t happened yet.
SBF shares update
Internally, SBF discusses what will happen next, according to a statement that on Twitter has been shared. The information corresponds to what The Block writes, so presumably the source is reliable.
The first goal, he says, is to set things right for customers. Whether that means that customers will get their money back immediately or later will probably depend on the second goal, which is to guarantee existing and new investors. If this can be done quickly with new capital, customers can be repaid relatively quickly.
A msg from SBF on FTX slack that got leaked to me by some telegram anon, have verified its real w another pic.twitter.com/XMjIM9nSkx
— Cobie (@cobie) Nov 10, 2022