FTX

In May 2019 former Wall Street trader Sam Bankman-Fried and former GoogleGoogleGoogle is an American technology company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and incorporated in 1998. It became an Alphabet subsidiary in 2015. Its businesses include internet search, advertising, software platforms, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.Open the full entry employee Gary Wang founded FTX, the owner and operator of the FTX.com cryptocurrency exchange.⁠[1]

In September 2021 FTX moved its headquarters from Hong Kong to the Bahamas. On January 31, 2022, it announced $400 million in new funding from investors including SoftBankSoftBank GroupSoftBank Group (SoftBank Group Corp.) is an investment holding company headquartered in Tokyo, founded by Masayoshi Son in 1981. Starting out as a distributor of personal computer software, it moved into the internet, broadband and mobile communications, and has since become an investment group centered on AI-related assets such as Arm, the SoftBank Vision Funds and OpenAI.Open the full entry, Paradigm and Tiger Global at a $32 billion valuation; the company said the platform averaged $14 billion in daily trading volume.⁠[2]

Earlier, FTX had raised $900 million at an $18 billion valuation in July 2021 and then raised capital from investors including Temasek at a $25 billion valuation that October.⁠[1]

In November 2022 FTX faced about $6 billion in withdrawal requests over three days and fell into a liquidity crunch; rival BinanceBinanceBinance is a global digital asset trading and multi-asset financial platform launched in 2017 and co-founded by Changpeng Zhao and Yi He. Its business has expanded from spot trading to derivatives, wallets, payments, a public blockchain ecosystem, market data, traditional securities, and artificial intelligence interfaces; its history also includes security incidents, regulatory enforcement across multiple jurisdictions, a 2023 U.S. criminal settlement, and subsequent compliance restructuring.Open the full entry offered to buy it but then backed out, saying the problems were beyond its control or ability to help. Sequoia CapitalSequoia CapitalSequoia Capital is a venture capital firm founded by Don Valentine in 1972, investing from the seed stage through the growth stage. Its historical investments include Apple, Cisco, Google, YouTube, Airbnb, and Stripe; in 2021 it introduced the Sequoia Capital Fund structure, which can continue to hold public securities, and in 2023 its regional businesses became independent brands and partnerships.Open the full entry wrote its $214 million investment in FTX down to zero.⁠[3]

On November 11 FTX.com, FTX US, Alameda Research and about 130 affiliated companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States; entities including FTX Digital Markets, FTX Australia and LedgerX were not included. Bankman-Fried resigned as chief executive and was succeeded by John J. Ray III.⁠[4]

In November 2023 Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud and conspiracy, and on March 28, 2024, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Prosecutors said he had cost customers, investors and lenders more than $10 billion.⁠[5]

In December 2024 FTX announced that its reorganization plan would take effect on January 3, 2025, with the first distribution, to holders of convenience-class claims, expected within 60 days and Kraken and BitGoBitGoBitGo is an American digital asset custody and infrastructure company founded in 2013 by Mike Belshe. It offers custody, wallets, staking, trading, financing, stablecoin and settlement services, and its subsidiary BitGo Bank & Trust, National Association, is a national trust bank regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BTGO in January 2026 and is the custodian and infrastructure provider for World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin.Open the full entry acting as distribution agents.⁠[6]

On March 18, 2026, the FTX Recovery Trust announced a fourth distribution of about $2.2 billion beginning March 31. It brought cumulative recoveries to 96% for Dotcom customer claims, 100% for U.S. customer and general unsecured claims and 120% for convenience claims, paid through BitGo, KrakenKrakenKraken is a digital-asset trading platform founded in 2011 by Jesse Powell and Thanh Luu and launched for trading in 2013. As Payward’s flagship brand, it has expanded into spot and derivatives trading, equities, tokenized assets, custody and payments through jurisdiction-specific entities.Open the full entry or Payoneer.⁠[7]

In May 2026 the law firm Fenwick & West agreed to pay $54 million to settle a class action brought by former FTX users, and in June Bankman-Fried’s appeal was denied. From July 31 FTX made a fifth distribution of about $900 million, bringing total payouts since the bankruptcy filing to about $10 billion.⁠[8]

On October 9, 2026, Constance WangConstance WangConstance Wang is a co-founder of Pacifica.Open the full entry, FTX’s former chief operating officer and later co-CEO, criticized the trailer for the Netflix series The Altruists on X, saying the media liked the story that FTX collapsed because staff were partying in the Bahamas, whereas the company she knew had fewer than 200 employees, many working 16- to 18-hour days.⁠[9]