Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has received approval to sell approximately $873 million worth of trust assets as part of its efforts to repay creditors affected by its collapse in 2022.
The decision was announced in a filing made on November 29th in a Delaware bankruptcy court.
The assets to be sold comprise FTX’s holdings in various trusts issued by crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments and custody service provider Bitwise.
Grayscale Investments’ trusts are valued at $807 million, while Bitwise’s assets are valued at $66 million.
It’s important to note that the $744 million valuation mentioned in the court document is accurate as of October 25, 2023, and the assets have appreciated in value since then.
This approval follows a motion filed by FTX debtors on November 3rd, requesting the sale of six cryptocurrency trusts, including the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), and Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund.
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FTX currently holds more than 22 million units of GBTC, valued at $691 million, and 6.3 million shares of ETHE, valued at approximately $106 million.
Additionally, FTX can now sell Grayscale’s Ethereum Classic Trust, Litecoin Trust, and Digital Large Cap Trust to generate funds for affected FTX customers.
The exchange’s administrators, led by John J. Ray III, have been diligently working to recover assets since the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s former cryptocurrency empire in November 2022.
To date, approximately $7 billion in assets have been recovered, with nearly half of that amount coming from cryptocurrencies, totaling $3.4 billion.
In June, FTX’s debtors estimated that the total misappropriated customer assets amounted to $8.7 billion.
Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-Fried, the former head of FTX, was convicted on seven fraud-related charges on November 2nd and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 28, 2024.
He remains in custody at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center and has recently bartered four mackerels for a haircut while awaiting his legal proceedings.
