According to court documents filed on Tuesday, FTX, the defunct cryptocurrency exchange, is offering a $4 million bonus program to retain its staff. FTX’s CEO, John J. Ray III, wants to offer bonuses up to 94% of salary to prevent employees with knowledge of programming or company accounting practices from quitting. The company filed for bankruptcy in November, and CEO John J. Ray III took over in the same month.
Legal Fees and Forensic Accounting Cost FTX $38 Million
FTX has allocated over $38 million in legal fees for the FTX case and hired three law firms consisting of 180 lawyers and over 50 other staffers. While the legal fees may seem excessive, experts suggest paying $50 million to recover $8 million is better. Forensic accounting is helping to track down where scammers hid billions of dollars and paying the best in the business ensures that more funds are found and recovered.
Silvergate Bank Voluntarily Liquidates Assets
One of the largest bankers in the cryptocurrency industry, Silvergate Bank, has announced its voluntary liquidation of assets and wind down operations. The bank’s wind-down and liquidation plans include full repayment of all deposits.
The company is also considering how to resolve claims best and preserve the residual value of its assets, including its proprietary technology and tax assets.
Impact on the Cryptocurrency Market
The collapse of Silvergate Bank is causing additional selling pressure in the short term, as the crypto-friendly bank is forced to liquidate. Data shows that the transfer volume denominated in BTC is down 35% over the last 24 hours.
Additionally, the total number of transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain has dropped by 17%, and the number of active addresses has fallen by 10%.
Crypto.com Struggles to Maintain Fiat On-Ramps
Crypto.com is struggling to maintain fiat on-ramps in the face of the ongoing crypto banking crisis. The exchange’s current banking partner is only accessible to users based in the European Economic Area (EEA), and the exchange is only able to provide Euro-denominated banking services to its users in the EEA.
The company previously lost the ability to accept USD deposits due to issues with its banking partners.
Source: https://coinpedia.org/news/top-crypto-news-today-silvergate-bank-liquidates-assets-crypto-com-struggles-to-maintain-fiat-on-ramps/