FTX invites investors to register interest to restart rebranded exchange

Investors eager to help FTX reboot its global exchange must register their initial interest this week, the Wall Street Journal reported on June 28, citing sources familiar with the matter.

FTX CEO John J. Ray III said that FTX “has begun the process of soliciting interested parties to reboot the FTX.com exchange,” as per the report.

In January, Ray launched a task force to investigate the possibility of restarting the exchange. At the time, Ray said that stakeholders and customers believed FTX’s business model was essentially “viable,” regardless of the allegations of criminal misconduct.

In May, a court filing indicated that Ray was working on a relaunch plan. The firm also confirmed plans to restart its Japanese exchange in late April.

The bankrupt exchange is already holding early talks with potential investors to back the revival of FTX.com. The company is considering different structures to restart, including a joint venture. The firm also discussed ways to compensate existing users, such as offering them a stake in the reorganized firm.

Blockchain lending firm Figure, which lost the bid to help reboot Celsius, is one of the investors interested in the FTX.com revival plan.

Anonymous sources told WSJ that FTX, whose reputation has taken successive hits since its bankruptcy filing, will rebrand as part of any reboot plans. It is worth noting that the exchange has no plans to restart its subsidiary in the U.S., where the Securities and Exchange Commission is cracking down on the biggest exchanges.

FTX’s revival news comes on the heels of the exchange suspending the sale of its stake in artificial intelligence firm Anthropic. FTX had paid $500 million for the stake at the time of purchase.

Asset recovery continues

A recent court filing indicates that FTX owes its users $8.7 billion, around $6.4 billion of which was misappropriated. Since the bankruptcy filing, Ray has diligently worked to recover these assets, trying to claw back donations to politicians, charities, and other payments. Ray has consistently reiterated that the asset recovery process is challenging and complicated owing to the lack of proper records and commingling of user funds.

The filing noted that the exchange had recovered $7 billion in liquid assets. More importantly, this week’s filing alleged that FTX executives deliberately and not unintentionally commingled user funds since the very beginning of the exchange. The executives then used the misappropriated funds to purchase properties in the Bahamas, among other things.