Once the second largest cryptocurrency exchange, at least $1 Billion in investor assets appears to be missing, according to multiple reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Saturday morning, Reuters<\/a> reported that FTX was missing at least $1 Billion in client funds, according to two anonymous sources who held senior positions at FTX and said they had been briefed on the company\u2019s finances. The sources claimed the funds were part of $10 Billion in client funds that the FTX founder, Sam Bankman, secretly transferred to Alameda Research, the hedge fund he owns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A later report from the Wall Street Journal<\/a> added that it appeared hackers had actually taken $370 Million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The moving of FTX funds to Alameda was one of a series of crises that led to FTX filing for bankruptcy<\/a> and Bankman\u2019s resignation on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cdisagreed with the characterization\u201d of the transfer, saying: \u201cWe had confusing internal labeling and misread it.\u201d<\/p>Bankman told Reuters<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n When asked about the missing customer funds over text message by Reuters, Bankman-Fried replied with: \u201c???\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In a tweet<\/a> on Saturday, Ryne Miller FTX\u2019s US general counsel, said that the company had detected \u201cunauthorized transactions\u201d and that it had moved all digital assets to cold storage, or offline, as a precaution. Elliptic, a cryptocurrency analytics and compliance firm, estimates<\/a> that $473 Million in crypto assets were stolen from FTX last Friday night, though the specific amount has not been confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bankman was a major donor to the Democratic party, with a net worth that was once $17 Billion, and had goals of shaping how the world, especially policymakers in Washington DC, saw cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But FTX\u2019s digital currency, FTT, collapsed within a matter of days. Investors, particularly Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, learned that much of Alameda\u2019s assets were held in FTT, making the company vulnerable to the currency\u2019s fluctuating value. Binance\u2019s Changpeng Zhao, a crypto star in his own right, announced that his company would be liquidizing its FTT, a move that would ultimately cause a run on the asset and collapse its value. FTX announced on Friday that it declared bankruptcy and Bankman had resigned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m deeply sorry that we got into this place and for my role in it,\u201d Bankman told employees on Tuesday morning, days before his resignation. \u201cI fucked up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n