Crypto exchange giant FTX files for bankruptcy, hitting investors including SoftBank, Temasek as digital currency market loses US$150 billion in crash

In its bankruptcy filing, FTX listed more than 130 affiliated companies, 100,00 creditors and assets valued between US$10 billion and US$50 billion

FTX’s crash prompted some backers to write down their investments, while regulators ramped up calls for stricter oversight of the crypto industry

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FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the US on November 11 to fend off creditors. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:47am, 12 Nov 2022Updated: 7:25pm, 12 Nov 2022

It took less than a week for FTX to go from the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world to bankruptcy court.

The embattled cryptocurrency exchange, short billions of dollars, sought bankruptcy protection after the exchange experienced the industry’s equivalent of a bank run.

FTX, the hedge fund Alameda Research and dozens of other affiliated companies filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in Delaware on Friday. FTX US, which originally was not expected to be included in any financial rescue, was also part of the company’s bankruptcy filing.

Founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has resigned, the company said. Bankman-Fried was recently estimated to be worth US$23 billion and has been a prominent political donor to Democrats. His net worth has all but evaporated, according to Forbes and Bloomberg, which closely track the net worth of the world’s richest people.

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO FTX, testifies during a Senate hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on February 9, 2022. Photo: AFP

“I was shocked to see things unravel the way they did earlier in the week,” Bankman-Fried wrote in a series of posts on Twitter. The firm was valued at nearly US$32 billion in a January financing.

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