These Crypto Firms Were Exposed After Crypto Exchange FTX Collapsed

After major crypto exchange FTX filed for US bankruptcy protection on Friday, the crypto industry is bracing for further fallout. Some of FTX's investors have said they are writing their investment down to zero.

Other crypto firms may be exposed to FTX by having held tokens on the exchange or by owning FTX's native token, FTT, which plunged around 94 percent last week.

While the extent of the contagion across crypto markets remains unclear, here are some firms who have given information about their exposure to FTX.

Binance

Binance Chief Executive Changpeng Zhao sparked concerns among investors on November 6 when he said in a tweet that Binance would sell its holdings of FTT.

Zhao told a Twitter spaces event on Monday that Binance had previously held $580 million (roughly Rs. 4,705 crore) worth of FTT, of which "we only sold quite a small portion, we still hold a large bag".

BlockFi

FTX signed a deal with an option to buy crypto lender BlockFi for up to $240 million, BlockFi said in July.

BlockFi said on Nov. 11 it was pausing client withdrawals until there was clarity on FTX.

Celsius Network

Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network said in a tweet on November 11 that it had 3.5 million Serum tokens (SRM) on FTX as well as around $13 million (roughly Rs. 105 crore) in loans to FTX-linked trading company Alameda Research. The loans were under-collateralised, mostly by FTT tokens, Celsius said.

Coinbase

Coinbase Global said in a blog post on November 8 that it had $15 million worth of deposits on FTX. It said it had no exposure to FTT, no exposure to Alameda Research, and no loans to FTX.

It said it had $5 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of Q3.

CoinShares

Crypto asset manager CoinShares has $30.3 million worth of exposure to crypto exchange FTX, CoinShares said in a statement on Nov. 10.

CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti said that the group's financial health remains "strong", adding that its net asset value at the end of Q3 was 240.6 million pounds ($282.51 million).

Crypto.com

Singapore-based crypto exchange Crypto.com said on November 14 it had moved about $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,112 crore) to FTX over the course of a year, but most of it was recovered and exposure at the time of FTX's collapse was less than $10 million (roughly Rs. 81 crore).

CEO Kris Marszalek said the firm would prove all naysayers wrong on the platform being in trouble, and that it has a robust balance sheet and took no risks.

Galaxy Digital

Crypto financial services company Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd said in its third-quarter earnings statement on Nov. 9 - the day after FTX froze withdrawals - that it had a $76.8 million worth of exposure to FTX, of which $47.5 million was "in the withdrawal process".

In the earnings call, Novogratz said Galaxy had more than $1 billion in cash and $1.5 billion (roughly Rs. 12,166 crore) in liquidity.

Galois Capital

Hedge fund Galois Capital had half its assets trapped on FTX, co-founder Kevin Zhou told investors in a recent letter, the Financial Times reported, estimating the amount to be around $100 million.

Galois did not respond to Reuters comment requests sent via email and its website.

Genesis

US cryptocurrency broker Genesis Trading's derivatives business has approximately $175 million (roughly Rs. 1,400 crore) in locked funds on FTX, the company said in a tweet on November 10.

"Genesis has no material exposure to FTT or any other tokens issued by centralized exchanges," the firm said in a tweet on November 9.

Kraken

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken said on November 10 that it held about 9,000 FTT tokens on the FTX exchange and was not affected "in any material way".

Kraken also said on Sunday it had frozen the accounts of FTX, Alameda Research and their executives.

Silvergate Capital Corporation

Silvergate Capital Corporation said on Friday FTX represented less than 10 percent of $11.9 billion (roughly Rs. 97 crore) deposits from all digital asset customers as of September 30.

The financial solutions provider to digital assets also said Silvergate has no outstanding loans or investments in FTX, and FTX is not a custodian for Silvergate's bitcoin-collateralised Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) leverage loans.

Voyager Digital

FTX won crypto lender Voyager Digital's assets in a $1.42-billion (roughly Rs. 11,518 crore) bid at an auction in September months after the lender spurned an earlier proposal and called it a "low-ball bid dressed up as a white knight rescue".

Voyager said on November 11 it had reopened the bidding process for the company and maintained a balance of approximately $3 million (roughly Rs. 24 crore) at FTX when the embattled crypto exchange filed for protection from creditors.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

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