SkyGate Digital

First Mover Americas: FTX Faces Criminal Probe

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX faces a criminal investigation in the Bahamas following its dramatic collapse last week. Authorities in the Caribbean country where FTX has its headquarters are investigating whether any criminal misconduct occurred in the exchange’s decline and bankruptcy. Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange went from being one of the world’s largest to filing for bankruptcy in barely a week, after a CoinDesk article raised questions about the financial stability of its sister company Alameda Research.
The native token of Binance-owned Trust Wallet soared 80% on Sunday after CEO Changpeng Zhao encouraged crypto users to take personal control of their digital assets. Zhao made the warning following the collapse of Binance’s rival FTX, which Binance briefly agreed to rescue before aborting its plan after it took a closer look at FTX’s balance sheet. Trust Wallet is a decentralized hot wallet facilitating the storage of cryptocurrencies. Its native token TWT allows holders to participate in decision making related to the app’s features. At the time of writing, TWT was up about 50% in the last 24 hours at $2.44, according to data by CoinMarketCap.
Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek has attempted to assuage fears that the exchange could be the next to face a liquidity crisis. Crypto.com’s native token CRO has dropped around 45% in the last week, while its daily volume was down to about $284 million in October compared with last year’s highs of around $4 billion. In a YouTube interview, Marszalek reiterated that Crypto.com’s balance sheet is strong and its exposure to FTT was limited. He added that CRO, unlike FTX’s native token FTT, has never been used as loan collateral.