Rise and fall of FTX

Bahamas-based crypto exchange FTX – once one of the world’s largest exchanges – filed for bankruptcy after a rush of customer withdrawals of its native token FTT spurred a liquidity crisis
        

May 2019: Former Wall Street trader Sam Bankman-Fried (left) and ex-Google employee Gary Wang found FTX, owner and operator of FTX.CO. Bankman-Fried launches Alameda Research crypto trading company
    
Jan 2022: FTX raises $400 million from investors, valuing company at $32 billion

Nov 2, 2022: Crypto news website CoinDesk reports Alameda’s $14.6 billion in assets
are held in FTX’s token, FTT

Nov 7: Bankman-Fried says FTX is “fine, assets are fine,” and blames competitor’s false rumours. FTX’s token falls sharply from about $22 to below $18

Nov 8: Rival Binance – world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange – announces plans to acquire FTX’s non-U.S. business. FTX pauses withdrawals. Bankman-Fried tweets, “all assets will be covered”

Nov 9: Binance deal falls through. CEO Changpeng Zhao says Binance will liquidate its holdings of FTT due to unspecified “revelations.” Bloomberg reports that U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating FTX

Nov 10: FTX starts to unravel. FTX balance sheet shows crypto exchange has only $900m of assets it can quickly sell, despite having almost $9bn of liabilities. Wall Street Journal reveals that FTX has lent some $10bn to Alameda

Nov 11: FTX files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with more than 100,000 creditors
                                                                             

Sources: Bloomberg, Financial Times, Reuters 
Pictures: Getty Images, Linkedin 
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