FTX lent Alameda billions of dollars in customer assets: WSJ
Quick Take
- FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried told an investor that sister company Alameda Research owes the exchange about $10 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
- FTX had $16 billion in customer assets, per WSJ.
Crypto exchange FTX lent about $10 billion to sister company and trading firm Alameda Research, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The report, citing a conversation with CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and an investor, said FTX had more than $16 billion in customer assets.
Earlier Thursday, Reuters reported that FTX transferred at least $4 billion to Alameda. Bankman-Fried didn’t inform other executives about the transfer of funds to Alameda, Reuters also said.
Alameda is now shutting down, according to a tweet thread posted by Bankman-Fried. The CEO also said FTX will be "spending the week doing everything we can to raise liquidity" in order to repay customers.
For the last few days, FTX has been the focal point of a financial storm roiling the crypto industry.
Earlier in the week, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, said the exchange would begin selling off holdings of FTX's token, FTT. Then, amid a flood of client withdrawals, FTX announced on Tuesday it planned to sell its non-U.S. assets to Binance.
The deal ultimately collapsed after Binance walked away, citing due diligence issues.
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