James Bromley, a lawyer for the new management of the failed crypto platform, said the missing assets may have been stolen. Bromley made the comments during the first court appearance for FTX’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy Tuesday. (The Wall Street Journal)
Talking point: Yes, it appears to be true—as if the poor financial controls and alleged use of customer funds for trading weren’t bad enough, FTX also suffered a hack shortly after filing for bankruptcy. FTX’s new CEO John Ray III had previously confirmed “unauthorized access to certain assets has occurred.” The hack, along with FTX’s balance sheet—which Bloomberg financial writer Matt Levine has called “an Excel file full of the howling of ghosts and the shrieking of tortured souls”—make the prospect of customers recovering their deposits unlikely. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported the crypto brokerage Genesis is warning potential investors it may need to file for bankruptcy if it’s unable to raise enough cash to cover a liquidity crunch. Genesis has said it has US$175 million locked in an FTX trading account.