Insolvent cryptocurrency trading firm FTX said in a statement that hackers stole roughly $415 million in digital assets from centrally-held accounts.
The theft comprises a large number of assets the company hopes to recover, it said in a presentation.
According to the bankrupt firm’s “Maximizing FTX Recoveries” presentation, its total liquid assets for recovery to $5.5 billion USD. This also includes “unauthorized third-party transfers” totalling $323 million from its global platform, FTX.com. FTX hedge fund Alameda Research lost a further $2 million to hackers.
It added,
“FTX Debtors have identified approximately $181 million of digital assets associated with FTX US as of the Petition Date, $90 million of which was subject to unauthorized third-party transfers post-petition, $88 million of which is in cold storage under the control of the FTX Debtors, and $3 million of which is pending transfer to cold storage under the control of the FTX Debtors.”
Conversely, the company outlined in its presentation that $529 million in FTT, the firm’s native token, were classified as liquid assets. FTT collapsed amid a massive liquidity crunch in mid-November last year.
John Ray, acting chief executive for the restructuring firm, said in a statement as cited by CNBC,
“We are making important progress in our efforts to maximize recoveries, and it has taken a Herculean investigative effort from our team to uncover this preliminary information.”
Hack Job at FTX?
The news comes after the company faced security breaches in November last year, potentially leading to the stolen funds. At the time, the phishing attacks forced FTX to suspend transactions after it reported more than $570 million in losses. Roughly $100 million of the funds remain missing.
Currently, FTX’s former and disgraced CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, faces charges of fraud and misappropriation of funds, among others. Total charges could hit him with up to 115 years in prison. A US-based task force has been deployed to recover the stolen funds, including those in the presentation.
