(New York) The new boss of FTX, a bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange platform, said on Saturday that it had launched a strategic review of the group’s assets to decide what to sell or reorganize.
“Based on what we have observed over the past week, we are pleased to learn that many of FTX’s regulated or licensed affiliates, both in the United States and outside the United States, have solvent balance sheets, responsible management and valuable franchises,” John Ray III said in a statement.
“One of our priorities in the coming weeks will be to explore the possibility of selling, recapitalizing or initiating other transactions for these subsidiaries, and others that we will potentially identify as our work will continue,” he added.
Considered one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, FTX was suddenly unable to return the money they had deposited there to its customers in early November. The group announced its bankruptcy filing on November 11 as well as the resignation of its founder and boss, Sam Bankman-Fried.
In a domino effect, several other cryptocurrency exchanges have had to suspend some withdrawals in recent days due to their ties to FTX.
Mr. Bankman-Fried was replaced by Mr. Ray, who notably oversaw the bankruptcy of the former American energy giant Enron in the early 2000s.
The latter castigated earlier in the week the calamitous management of Mr. Bankman-Fried, believing that he had “never seen such a complete failure of the control mechanisms of a company and such a flagrant absence of reliable financial information” in his career.
A first hearing before a Delaware state bankruptcy judge is scheduled for Tuesday.
In particular, FTX requested permission to set up a new money management system and to pay certain providers whose services are essential for the proper functioning of FTX.
On Saturday, Mr. Ray called on employees, suppliers, customers, regulators and governments to be “patient” with the company while the restructuring is in place.