FTX’s Liquid exchange hopes to return customer assets next year

The FTX-owned Japanese crypto exchange Liquid has announced plans to begin the process of returning customer assets in 2023.

According to the Dec. 29 statement on its blog, the exchange is preparing to return assets entrusted by both customers from FTX Japan and Liquid Japan, and is working on a report that would further outline the details in January.

A statement from the team read:

“For the assets entrusted to us by our customers at FTX Japan and Liquid Japan, we are proceeding with system development so that withdrawals will be possible from the Liquid Japan web version.”

According to Liquid, the system intends to allow users who are unable to access FTX to check their FTX Japan balances from the Liquid Japan website, and also make withdrawals from there. However, customers using the Liquid Japan platform are expected to be able to withdraw as usual.

On Dec. 13, the exchange reassured its community on Twitter that they were cooperating with FTX debtors in relation to Liquid, and that it has not forgotten about its clients.

We are cooperating with FTX Debtors as it relates to Liquid. We have not forgotten about our users, and we will provide further updates when we can. Thank you for your ongoing patience and understanding.
— Liquid Global Official (@Liquid_Global) December 14, 2022

On Nov 15, Liquid halted all withdrawals following the liquidity crunch faced by its parent company, FTX.

Shortly after that, on Nov. 21, the exchange suspended all trading operations on its platform in line with instructions from FTX Trading. According to the statement, Liquid exchange paused “all forms of trading” because of FTX’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

On Dec 9, Cointelegraph reported that Japanese authorities had postponed FTX Japan’s suspension deadline until March 9, extending the original time limit by three months because the firm had failed to return assets from custody to creditors. In mid-November, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) initially requested FTX Japan to suspend business orders by Dec. 9.

Founded in 2014, Liquid is a cryptocurrency exchange licensed under Japan’s Payment Services Act through its Japanese operating entity, Quoine Corporation. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, FTX acquired Liquid Group and its subsidiaries in February.