FTX’s Bounty: What They Found

The new management team at FTX, the exchange that became the poster child for bankruptcies, has unearthed a goldmine worth about $5.5 billion in assets. This revelation left some creditors genuinely hopeful, while others are sweating bullets, fearing a market crash. On January 17, they reported that around $3.5 billion of this bounty was tied to cryptocurrencies, including the well-known Solana (SOL) and FTX’s own FTT tokens, alongside some liquid assets like XRP, DOGE, and others. If this all sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve been in a wild rollercoaster of crypto value fluctuations, and now it could get bumpier.

Counting Tokens: The Liquid Story

Liquidators are playing a game of ‘how high can you fly’ with crypto valuations, citing values from the day of the bankruptcy filing. Notably, a hefty $529 million worth of FTT was deemed ‘liquid,’ alongside $685 million in Solana. Adam Cochran from Cinneamhain Ventures chimed in, warning that the sell-off of these assets could lead to a mega-slump in the SOL market. Think of it as the ultimate game of hot potato, but in this case, everyone wants to throw the potatoes at someone else, and fast.

Illiquid Assets: The Ticking Time Bomb?

Just when you thought things couldn’t get crazier, enter the illiquid assets that FTX also put on the list. These tokens range from the absurdly obscure to, well, just downright weird. The likes of Serum (SRM), LUNA, and wrapped versions of Bitcoin and Ether are considered illiquid. And let’s not forget there’s a treasure trove of bizarre tokens such as TRUMPLOSE—a prediction token tied to election outcomes—and BEAR Coin designed for fundraising efforts for animals. It begs the question: what were they thinking?

The List of Oddities

• TRUMPLOSE: A bet on the election, complete with 14 million tokens hanging out in the FTX vault.
• BEAR Coin: A staggering 190 billion tokens aimed at helping animals—because who doesn’t want to support fluffy friends?
• MAPS Tokens: Almost 10 billion of them tied to a travel app, just in case you decide to travel with crypto.
• ALM and FIDA Tokens: With 2.4 billion and 277 million tokens respectively, they’re in the mix too.

SBF’s Comeback: The Plot Thickens

In an unexpected twist, former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried decided to drop a blog post on January 18. It might as well have been titled “I’m Sorry You Feel That Way About Us”, as he labeled the FTX report’s portrayal of the situation “extremely misleading.” He insisted that FTX US was solvent when handed over to the legal eagles at Sullivan & Cromwell, and argued it still was. As if the plot wasn’t already tangled enough, can someone pass the popcorn?