At its peak in July 2021, the company had over one million users and was the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume.[8][9] As of November 2022, FTX was the third-largest digital currency exchange boasting an active trading volume of USD 10 billion and a valuation of USD 32 billion.[10] FTX is incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda and headquartered in the Bahamas.[11] FTX is closely associated with FTX.US, a separate exchange available to US residents.[12]
Since November 11, 2022, FTX has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the US court system.[13][14][15][16] Public concern began with rumors of unethical and fraudulent inter-company transfers of client funds. In November 2022 CoinDesk also raised concerns stating that FTX's partner firm Alameda Research held a significant portion of its assets in FTX's native token (FTT).[17][18] Following this revelation, rival exchange Binance's CEO Changpeng Zhao announced that Binance would sell its holdings of the token, which was quickly followed by a spike in customer withdrawals from FTX.[19]
FTX was unable to meet the demand for customer withdrawals.[20] Binance signed a letter of intent to acquire the firm, with due diligence to follow, to ensure that customers could recover their assets from FTX in a timely manner, but Binance withdrew its offer the next day, citing reports of mishandled customer funds and U.S. agency investigations.[21] On December 12, 2022, founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested by the Bahamian authorities for financial offences, at the request of the US government.[22] The current CEO of FTX is John J. Ray III, who specializes in recovering funds from failed corporations.