FTX: Alameda could borrow up to $65 billion without collateral

• FTX’s back door to Alameda gave the research arm access to borrow billions of customers fund without collateral
• The recovered funds are less than the assets that were supposed to be on both FTX.com and FTX US

FTX Debtors released a new update on the recent developments in the bankruptcy proceedings. The update was regarding a meeting with the advisors and members of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (OCC). During the meeting, FTX Debtors revealed that the composition of the assets recovered.

In a presentation to OCC, the Debtors stated that it recovered $5.5 billion in liquid assets consisting of $1.7 billion in cash. In addition, $3.5 billion in cryptocurrencies and $0.3 billion in securities made up the rest of the assets.  However, despite the large recovery, FTX Debtors stated that both FTX and FTX US still fall short of money. A press release on the same read,

“The FTX Debtors also confirmed that, based on current estimates of the amount of digital assets associated with the FTX.com and FTX US exchanges as of the Petition Date, there is a substantial shortfall of digital assets at both exchanges.”

Identified assets

Furthermore, the presentation showed that the top tokens held by FTX, FTX.US, and Alameda were Solana (SOL), FTT, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Aptos (APT), Dogecoin (DOGE), Matic, XRP, and others. Meanwhile, the tokens in the illiquid crypto assets list included Serum (SRM), SOLETH, MAPS, SOLBTC, Oxygen (OXY), MEDIA, and BEAR.

Moreover, the Debtors identified 36 properties of the exchange in the Bahamas. The value of these properties was estimated at $253 million on a cost basis.

Alameda’s billion-dollar back door

Notably, the presentation showed that the exchange had allowed Alameda to borrow up to $65 billion of customers’ funds without collateral. In addition to this, “certain individuals could withdraw assets without record on the exchange ledger”

FTX backend code for Alameda | Source: FTX Debtors

A receipt of FTX assets

The Debtors stated that FTX.com has nearly $1.6 billion in cryptocurrencies. Out of this, the unauthorized third-party transfer stood at $323 million, and the crypto in the hands of The Securities Commission of The Bahamas was at $426 million. This is contrary to the billions of dollars of claims made by the commission a few weeks back.

In addition, there is $742 million of crypto in the hands of the Debtors, which is currently in cold storage, and the pending transfer to the cold storage is valued at nearly $121 million. The press release stated,

“The assets identified as of the Petition Date are substantially less than the aggregate third-party customer balances suggested by the electronic ledger for FTX.com.”

Assets held by FTX US

Subsequently, the Debtors stated that it has found nearly $181 million of crypto that belongs to American users. Out of this, the unauthorized third-party transfers stood at $90 million, crypto in cold storage was valued at $88 million and crypto that was not in cold storage was valued at $3 million. This balance too was lesser than the “aggregate third-party customer balances”.