Customers of the bankrupt cryptocurrency platform FTX will recover the assets they lost when the company collapsed in 2022, the company announced this Wednesday (8).
The plan “envisions the centralized distribution to customers and other creditors worldwide of substantially all assets associated with FTX at the time of its collapse in November 2022,” according to a statement released by FTX Trading LTD.
The total return for customers will range between US$14.5 billion and US$16.3 billion (R$73.7 billion and R$82.9 billion). FTX clarified that the plan must still be approved by a Delaware bankruptcy court.
The plan “provides for the return of 100% of bankruptcy filings plus interest to non-governmental creditors,” said John Ray III, CEO and chief restructuring officer at FTX.
FTX said it obtained the funds by “monetizing an extraordinarily diverse collection of assets,” primarily investments held by the company and its affiliates and lawsuits.
Another factor was the resolution of complaints against the company, including about $24 billion that the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had requested for the period before the compensation plan was submitted.
To resolve the IRS cases, FTX will pay US$200 million (R$1 billion) in cash and US$685 million (R$3.4 billion) to be paid after adjusting other claims.
The company’s head, Sam Bankman-Fried, has taken the world of cryptocurrencies by storm at breakneck speed. He co-founded the small start-up FTX in 2019 and grew it into the second largest exchange platform in the world.
But in November 2022, the empire suddenly collapsed after an avalanche of client departures upon learning that part of the funds deposited with the company had been compromised in risky operations.
After a flurry of lawsuits, Bankman-Fried, a billionaire before the age of 30, was sentenced in March to 25 years in prison after being convicted of fraud and other financial crimes.
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© Agence France-Presse
