FTX Has Over $1B In Cash, New Management Working To Access, Consolidate Funds

The new management team at FTX is attempting to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from hundreds of bank accounts in an effort to salvage the position of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange, according to information provided to creditors on Tuesday

The company's new management, which took control when FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried quit on Nov. 11, indicated that assets worth more than $1 billion have been identified, while speaking at a procedural hearing on Tuesday, according to Coindesk.

The exchange has yet to consolidate the approximately $720 million in cash assets that the company has located in U.S. banking institutions that are permitted to hold money by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Institutions in the U.S. are already known to be holding nearly $500 million of FTX assets.

Mary Cilia, the new chief financial officer of FTX, stated under oath during a portion of the bankruptcy proceedings, “We are reaching out to all of those banks and changing the signatories on the accounts so that we can get access to the accounts and move the cash as much as we can to authorized depository institutions.”

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According to Cilia, over $130 million in cash is held hostage in Japan, where local restrictions have primarily ringfenced funds for local clients.

She said that the majority of the remaining $423 million is at unregistered U.S. institutions, and primarily at a single broker, though she declined to name the broker. An additional $6 million is being maintained for administrative costs, including salaries.

According to Cilia, $485 million is already in a licensed deposit facility.

Using custodial services like Bitgo, "ongoing efforts" are being made to identify the company's global crypto assets and transfer them to cold wallets.

Senior Director Steve Coverick from FTX's financial advisors Alvarez & Marsal also spoke at the hearing.

According to Coverick, the company's new management had to go over customer terms and conditions that were kept in several locations, including Google Drive and Slack.

Cilia meanwhile said the company currently anticipates being able to file the declaration of assets and financial position that is necessary under American bankruptcy law in April.

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