The story about FTX, which had been quiet for a long time, has flared up again after the surprising new statement from Sam Bankman-Fried's close group: that the exchange has 'never gone bankrupt'.
The new statement on 31/10 from the SBF group is shocking as it claims that FTX is not insolvent but only temporarily lacks liquidity.
They assert that FTX's assets when filing for bankruptcy amount to 136 billion USD, contrary to the common view regarding the collapse of the exchange.
The report states that the $8 billion debt of FTX customers has never disappeared and that 98% of creditors have either been or will be repaid above par, with expected repayment rates ranging from 119% to 143%.
Many experts, such as on-chain analyst ZachXBT, argue that FTX's report is misleading because the refunds are calculated based on the crypto prices at the end of 2022 – a time when the market had significantly dropped, causing customers to lose substantial profits from the subsequent rise of BTC, SOL, and other tokens.
Where have billions of dollars gone?
The new report shows that FTX still holds a massive amount of assets, including shares in Anthropic ($14.3 billion), Robinhood, Genesis, and SpaceX, along with a crypto stash worth tens of billions of dollars like SOL, SUI, BTC, ETH, XRP.
SBF's team claims that FTX's collapse was due to temporary liquidity issues rather than insolvency, and that it could have recovered if not forced to file for bankruptcy.
Skepticism still exists in the cryptocurrency community.
SBF's team's efforts to create goodwill backfired, as the crypto community condemned this as an act of 'rewriting history' by a convicted fraudster.
Some opinions speculate that SBF could be pardoned by Trump, due to the connection between FTX and Trump's lawsuits through the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.
However, most affirm: no report or number can erase the damage from FTX's historic collapse.
