FTX Temporarily Halts Withdrawals, On-Chain Data Shows: What You Need To Know

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX, whose token FTT FTT/USD is reeling under intense selling pressure following Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao’s announcement that Binance would offload all its holdings, has temporarily halted withdrawals Tuesday, according to Etherscan data. 

Data shows that the last withdrawal took place about three hours ago at 6:37 a.m. Eastern Time.

FTT, the native token of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, plunged over 35% overnight and made a low of $15.56, from a high of $23.15 over the last 24 hours.

The token then recouped some of its losses and stabilized around $17 before plummeting once again to make a fresh low of $14.86 at the time of writing this article.

Benzinga has contacted FTX for comment on this story. 

Major Cryptos In The Red

The debacle sent shockwaves across the crypto industry and dragged down major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin BTC/USD and Ethereum ETH/USD, which are trading down 6% and 8%, respectively, over the last 24 hours, according to data from Coinmarketcap.

FTT’s price nose-dived after Zhao remarked over the weekend that he would not support people who lobby against other industry players and that to avoid a debacle like that of LUNA LUNA/USD, he would offload Binance's entire FTT stake. 

The feud between Binance and FTX bosses apparently stems from regulatory ideas he put up in a blog post that suggested limitations on decentralized finance (DeFi).

FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried had come up with a draft regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies — a set of standards — while waiting for full federal regulatory regimes.

Alameda Research Controls About $5.8B In FTT Tokens

Raj A Kapoor, strategic advisor at Acryptoverse, said that Alameda Research controls about $5.8 billion in FTT tokens consisting of $3.66 billion in "unlocked FTT" and $2.16 billion in FTT collateral.

“Given the substantial exposure to FTT, if the markets turn against FTT, the value has declined. Further, FTT ownership is highly concentrated, with 93% of the total tokens held by only 10 addresses,” he said.

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