FTX Granted Swiss Moratorium to Explore Sale of Its Europe Arm

Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX is on its way to repaying creditors despite the current administration admitting the company may never recover all the assets amounting to $32 billion lost during Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) tenure. According to an April 12 update by the company, a Swiss court granted the FTX exchange a moratorium to explore the sale of its Europe arm, FTX Europe AG.

According to the announcement, the Swiss court appointed an administrator for FTX Europe AG in regard to the moratorium. Furthermore, FTX Europe AG is also listed as a debtor in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in Delaware.

“FTX Europe AG notes the Moratorium process will facilitate the exploration of strategic alternatives, including the previously disclosed potential sale of its business pursuant to US Bankruptcy Court-approved bidding procedures. Importantly, the previously announced process for confirming customer balances in preparation for allowing the withdrawal of funds from FTX EU Ltd. is unchanged by the Moratorium,” FTX announcement noted.

Notably, the centralized cryptocurrency exchange is represented by Sullivan & Cromwell LLP as legal counsel and is assisted by several other lawyers.

FTX Debacle

Since November last year, the FTX creditors have been patiently waiting for the Delaware bankruptcy court to approve the liquidation of the exchange. According to a publicly available list, hundreds of institutional investors including global government agencies were trapped by SBF and his colleagues. However, SBF has distanced himself from any wrongdoing citing volatility in the market as the failure to deliver on his promises. Nevertheless, SBF colleagues including FTX co-founders, Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, and ex-Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison have all admitted wrongdoings and are working with United States investigators against the former CEO.

Meanwhile, the FTX exchange is reportedly planning to reopen in the next few months after the current officials reportedly recovered another $2.3 billion, thus bringing the total amount at hand to $7.3 billion. FTX CEO John J. Ray III has left no stone unturned in a bid to make creditors whole again.

FTX Has Recovered $7.3 Billion In Assets, Will Consider Rebooting Exchange https://t.co/saVG2syYgq

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 12, 2023

FTX lawyer Andy Dietderich said the company has stabilized after spending the past months since November collecting as much information as possible.

Following the announcements, FTX native coin FTT jumped nearly 100 percent in the last 24 hours to trade around $2.62 on Thursday. As a result, the FTT coin is up nearly 130 percent in the past 30 days according to market data provided by Binance-backed Coinmarketcap. Nevertheless, the FTT coin is down as much as 96 percent from its ATH around $84.18 set in September 2021.