John Ray, who took over as chief executive officer of crypto exchange FTX, has described some of the chaotic experiences at the firm following the company declaring bankruptcy. In testimony for FTX’s case in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Feb. 6, Ray said he and other professionals had “carefully” been conducting an investigation into FTX’s activities, due to the company having no physical office. The FTX CEO seemed to be pushing back against a motion to assign an independent examiner to the bankruptcy case, claiming that “inadvertent errors” could result in “hundreds of millions …

High-profile crypto bankruptcies and a hearty price crash are necessary evils to help the industry grow, while greater regulation is a must, according to Microstrategy co-founder Michael Saylor. In a Feb. 3 interview on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Saylor opined on potentia incoming United States crypto regulation after the bankruptcy of FTX, saying: “The crypto meltdown was painful in the short term, but it's necessary over the long term for the industry to grow up.” He added the industry “has some good ideas” — implying the Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning network — but added some in the space “implemented those …

FTX's new management is seeking to recover political donations made by Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives until February 28, according to a statement disclosed on Feb. 5. The move is part of bankruptcy proceedings and an effort to repay the crypto exchange creditors. According to FTX attorney Andy Dietderich, the defunct firm has “recovered $5 billion in cash and liquid cryptocurrencies” by Jan. 11. Total liabilities amount to nearly $9 billion. As noted in the statement: "FTX Debtors are sending confidential messages to political figures, political action funds, and other recipients of contributions or other payments that were made …

Google Cloud has reportedly invested $300 million into artificial intelligence (AI) startup firm Anthropic, which also happened to receive over $500 million in funds from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried about six months before FTX catastrophically collapsed. While the $300 million figure was reported by Financial Times on Feb. 4, Anthropic confirmed the investment partnership with Google Cloud on the same day despite not disclosing any figures: We're excited to use Google Cloud to train our AI systems, including Claude! https://t.co/IaqQ5lpJrP https://t.co/vOn5Cj4sPt — Anthropic (@AnthropicAI) February 3, 2023 In the same announcement, Anthropic also confirmed that they previously raised capital …

A seven-member committee has been appointed to represent the interests of unsecured creditors in Genesis Global bankruptcy case, according to court filings on Feb. 4. The committee will represent the creditors in court, having the right to be consulted before major decisions and to participate in the reorganization plan. Members are generally select from a list of twenty largest unsecured creditors. Among the chosen members are Mirana Asset Management - an arm of crypto exchange Bybit, SOF International, Digital Finance Group, and crypto exchange Bitvavo, along with three individual creditors Amelia Alvarez, Richard Weston, and Teddy Andre Amadeo Goriss. The …

A property linked to Sam Bankman-Fried's political spending was pulled off the market by the seller as a sign of "good faith" after being linked to FTX customer funds, the Wall Street Journal reported. The townhouse - located a few blocks from the United States Capitol, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood - is owned by Guarding Against Pandemics, a nonprofit organization established by Gabriel Bankman-Fried, brother of the bankrupt exchange's former CEO. In court filings from January, FTX's new management claimed that customer funds were misappropriated to purchase the property for $3.3 million. The Guarding Against Pandemics pulled the listing …

Emergent Fidelity Technologies, a Sam Bankman-Fried holding company based in Antigua and Barbuda, has filed for bankruptcy protection. According to court records filed on Feb. 3, Emergent Fidelity Technologies submitted a voluntary petition to declare bankruptcy under a Chapter 11 filing in United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The company was already the target of a lawsuit filed by crypto lending firm BlockFi in November regarding the status of roughly 55 million shares of Robinhood. The Robinhood shares — worth more than $590 million at the time of publication — have been a point of contention among …

Crypto mining firm Core Scientific made a deal with the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) to pay off an outstanding debt of $38.6 million by handing over more than 27,000 mining machines used as collateral. In a court filing, the company said that the mining rigs were no longer essential to its operations and any future plans. The firm is now waiting to get the approval of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, which is in charge of the proceedings. While the company accepted that the move will have a short-term negative impact on …

Nearly $13 million has been moved into the consolidation wallet of bankrupt crypto trading firm Alameda Research in just 24 hours, revealed data from blockchain security firm PeckShield on Feb. 2. The address received $6 million in Tether (USDT) and $2.5 million in Ether (ETH) from crypto exchange Bitfinex’s hot wallet, along with $4.5 million worth of USD Coin (USDC) from an anonymous source and 30,000 Lido tokens worth roughly $65,500. #PeckShieldAlert ～$13M worth of cryptos have been transferred to Alameda consolidation-labeled address, including ~6M $USDT & 1,545 $ETH ($2.5M) from Bitfinex, ~4.6M $USDC from 0x7889 Wondering why Bitfinex transferred …

A Voyager creditor and finance lawyer wants to see a chapter 11 trustee appointed in crypto brokerage Voyager Digital’s bankruptcy trial, which would see Voyager lose control of its estate. In a Feb. 1 motion, Voyager creditor Michelle DiVita accused Voyager of having a “history of financial statement inaccuracies and public misrepresentations that were known, or reasonably discoverable, at the beginning of the bankruptcy proceeding." Due to this pre-bankruptcy conduct, DiVita believes that an examiner or trustee should have been requested, and is now doing so herself. The filing alleges that Voyager “concealed the true nature of its lending activities …

Bankrupt cryptocurrency lending firm Celsius had come up with a withdrawal process for users who had their crypto in its custody when it stopped withdrawals in June 2022. Celsius released an official update on upcoming withdrawals on Jan. 31, providing the list of users that will be eligible to withdraw approximately 94% of eligible custody assets. The firm laid out the process in a 1,411-page court filing with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, listing the full names of all the eligible users alongside the type and amount of debted crypto assets. Celsius stressed …

The counsel representing Celsius’ official creditor committee has denied assertions that the bids for Celsius’ crypto assets have been rejected. During a Jan. 31 Twitter Space “town hall” following the examiner’s report on Celsius attorneys from White & Case LLP including Gregory Pesce and Aaron Colodny addressed the so-called “leaked” bids for Celsius’ crypto assets, which was published by crypto blogger Tiffany Fong. “The assertion that the bids have been rejected is just categorically false,” said Pesce. https://t.co/hbJ5GJchZC — Celsius Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (@CelsiusUcc) January 31, 2023 Fong’s Jan. 27 post on Substack revealed at least five firms …