Bahamas Seized $3.5 Billion FTX Assets Over Risk Of ‘Imminent Dissipation’

Shortly after FTX Digital Markets filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Bahamian authorities seized $3.5 billion of digital assets from the failed cryptocurrency exchange, according to a statement late Thursday.

The assets were seized by the Bahamian Securities Commission, which cited a risk of “imminent dissipation” of the assets over concerns flagged by Bankman-Fried, which included potential cyberattacks against the exchange, Bloomberg reports.

According to bankruptcy filings, around $372 million worth of tokens were stolen from the exchange, out of roughly $700 million of token outflows from FTX within a 24 hour period, according to blockchain research firm Nansen.

The disclosure could mean that some FTX customers recover more losses than anticipated.

The Bahamian Securities Commission said the digital assets are under its “exclusive control” on a temporary basis until the country’s Supreme Court allows the regulator to return them to the customers and creditors who own them or to the joint liquidators. That could provide relief to some FTX customers after its current chief executive John J. Ray III, who is overseeing the restructuring, warned that the international customers could lose more funds than US peers.

Bahamian authorities are scrutinizing the web of relationships between bankrupt FTX.com, which is registered locally as FTX Digital Markets Ltd., and its trading firm, Alameda Research. -Bloomberg

According to Bloomberg, the US Justice Department has launched a criminal probe into the stolen assets, while the Bahamian Supreme Court suggested the Commission should lawfully assist in sharing information regarding FTX with US debtors and their representatives.

Earlier today we noted that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried cashed out roughly $684,000 from a crypto exchange in Seychelles while being under house arrest, CoinTelegraph reports.

SBF has cashed out $684,000 in crypto to an exchange in Seychelles while being under house arrest, according to the on-chain investigation by DeFi educator BowTiedIguana.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) analyst BowTiedIguana took to Twitter on Dec. 29 to report on a series of obfuscated wallet transactions allegedly linked to SBF, suggesting that the former FTX CEO could have violated release conditions to not spend more than $1,000 without permission from the court.

According to BowTiedIguana’s analysis, SBF’s public address (0xD5758) on Dec. 28 sent all remaining Ether to a newly created address (0x7386d). BowTiedIguana noted that SBF took over the address that was originally owned by Sushiswap creator from Chef Nomi in August 2020.

When SBF agreed to take over control of the Sushiswap exchange from anonymous founder Chef Nomi in August 2020, he asked for ownership to be transferred to his Ethereum addresshttps://t.co/nE9z9tLd2n pic.twitter.com/vask9WqSHd

— BowTiedIguana (@BowTiedIguana) December 30, 2022

What else does SBF have scurried away?