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The Bahamas securities regulator has frozen the assets of the Bahamas subsidiary of FTX, as the world’s second largest cryptocurrency exchange struggles for survival.
The Securities Commission of the Bahamas said on Thursday it had frozen the assets of FTX Digital Markets and related parties, as well appointing a liquidator for the unit.
“The powers of the directors of FDM have been suspended and no assets of FDM, client assets or trust assets held by FDM, can be transferred, assigned or otherwise dealt with, without the written approval of the provisional liquidator,” the commission said.
The move came as FTX’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, scrambled to find funds to plug a financial hole in the exchange that could be as deep as $8bn, according to multiple reports, as customers rush for the exit.
In the US, the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are reportedly examining FTX to determine whether any criminal activity or securities offences have been committed.
On Thursday, Bankman-Fried apologised, saying he had “fucked up” in his calculations and in his communications during the crisis.
Bitcoin, the cornerstone crypto asset, fell 4% to $16,858 on Friday, with losses totalling 17% this month. FTX’s own token, FTT, was down 27% at $2.7, with 89% losses for the month.
BlockFi, a crypto lender, said on Friday morning it was pausing customer withdrawals after the FTX situation. FTX had bailed out BlockFi in June with a $250m loan, a week after having loaned nearly $500m to the struggling crypto broker Voyager Digital. BlockFi said it was “not able to operate business as usual” given the situation.
The FTX crisis was triggered last week by reports that the balance sheet of Alameda Research, a crypto hedge fund also owned by Bankman-Fried, was loaded with billions of dollars-worth of FTT tokens, implying that any volatility in the token’s price could endanger Bankman-Fried’s empire.
FTX customers withdrew $6bn in the 72 hours before Tuesday morning, Reuters reported, citing a message to staff at FTX, when the exchange was forced to block further redemptions in an effort to remain solvent. It has yet to restart withdrawals, is blocking new account signups and advising existing customers against making deposits with FTX.
The Alameda reports became a crisis for FTX when Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced on Sunday it would sell its holdings – about $500m worth – in FTT, citing “recent revelations”. The value of FTT subsequently fell far below the $22 floor that FTX had committed to support, and customers then triggered the crypto equivalent of a bank run by attempting to withdraw their funds faster than the exchange could process them.
Trading volumes in bitcoin futures and exchange-traded funds were soaring on Friday amid investor panic.
“Confidence is gone on day one of this fallout and there is no sign of it coming back yet,” said Kami Zeng, the head of research at Fore Elite Capital Management, a Hong Kong-based crypto fund manager.
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