The new chief executive officer of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, John J. Ray III, is exploring options to restart the business and revive it from its status as a failed venture.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ray said he was working hard to return money to the company’s customers and creditors. He also established a task force charged with exploring the possibility of restarting FTX.com—the main international exchange of FTX.
In restructuring troubled companies, Ray Bradley has been most famous for his successful efforts in recovering billions of dollars for Enron Corp. It is probably this experience that makes him the best person to recover funds for FTX’s creditors.
He is investigating whether it would be more profitable to restart FTX.com and sell the software platform to a new customer, or simply liquidate company assets by selling off unused equipment.
FTX’s bankruptcy filing and collapse was the last straw in a string of events that had already shaken up the cryptocurrency industry.
Several platforms, including FTX, Celsius, and Voyager Digital have frozen millions of users’ access to their funds—and have filed for bankruptcy as a way of restarting their businesses.
Ray suggests that reviving the exchange solely for its sound technology would be worthwhile.
Mr. Ray has remodeled FTX’s structure after discovering that it had almost no corporate governance, and he let go of dozens of staff members as a result.
The task that he and his team face is big: they are sifting through over 30 terabytes of data from FTX which could possibly lead them to the location of funds. Last week, FTX disclosed it had identified $5 billion in liquid assets—and additionally assets that can be sold
Although disgraced Sam Bankman-Fried criticized Ray’s handling of the company and said it was a mistake to file for bankruptcy, Ray dismissed SBF’s comments saying that they’re “unhelpful” and “self-serving.”
The future of FTX’s customers remains uncertain, even if it is determined that reviving the exchange will be worth pursuing.