While it’s widely reported that hundreds of millions of dollars in Ethereum-based tokens were siphoned from the FTX wallet after the company filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022, another $333 million worth of FTX-related bitcoins somehow vanished as well. At one point, FTX held $3.3 billion worth of bitcoins during its heyday, but by Nov. 7, 2022, the exchange held 0.25 bitcoin.
5 days before FTX filed for bankruptcy, 20,176 bitcoin left the exchange in less than 24 hours
After Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) told the public that Binance would be dumping all of its FTT tokens, people immediately started watching FTX react. In addition to watching FTX react to CZ’s statements, people also began tracking the crypto balance of the beleaguered exchange.
A great deal of people are watching the Ethereum-based addresses that siphoned funds from the exchange the same day it filed for bankruptcy protection. However, FTX also held at least 20,176.84 bitcoin (BTC) on Nov. 5, 2022. Yet the following day, FTX’s BTC reserves dropped to 220.26 bitcoin. By Nov. 7, 2022, data revealed the exchange only held 0.25 bitcoin as it was all transferred well before the firm’s bankruptcy filing.
Last year, when FTX was a top exchange in terms of global crypto trading volume, the trading platform held 75,303 BTC, and bitcoin exchanged hands for approximately $46K per unit, according to CryptoQuant.com data. Had been. At that exchange rate in mid-April 2021, 75K+ bitcoins would be worth approximately US$3.3 billion in nominal terms.
By mid-September 2021, FTX’s bitcoin reserves dropped down to the 20,000 range and remained that way for well over a year. An archived snapshot recorded on May 8, 2022, indicates that coinglass.com data had once shown FTX was the 11th largest exchange in terms of BTC reserves.
According to data from CoinGlass.com, FTX held 20,048.43 bitcoin on the day. Coinglass now ranks FTX at number 18 as it shows the exchange holds 7.03 BTC. Metrics from Cryptoquant.com show that FTX has approximately 7 BTC in his wallet as of November 19, 2022. The 20,176.84 BTC is worth about $333 million, but when it was transferred, the funds were worth about $409 million.
The 20,176.84 BTC leaving FTX was reported on via Twitter and a couple of crypto media publications. Moreover, FTX’s bitcoins vanished before CZ told the public Binance would acquire FTX and then later revealed Binance backed out of the deal over due diligence.
While the proof-of-reserve concept is gaining traction, many exchange addresses were already known to the public. FTX’s BTC reserve stash was recorded by several onchain data sites, including cryptoquant.com, glassnode.com and coinglass.com.
