FTX Latest: Filing Shows $1.24 Billion Cash; Hearing to Begin

(Bloomberg) — An FTX Group bankruptcy filing showed that the fallen cryptocurrency firm and a number of affiliates had a combined cash balance of $1.24 billion — more than debtors had identified a few days ago.

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The new management of the collapsed exchange will be at a hearing in Delaware bankruptcy court for first-day motions today. You can follow Bloomberg’s TOPLive coverage here.

A string of high-profile crypto crises could set the industry back by almost a decade, according to the co-founder of Three Arrows Capital, whose June implosion was one of the largest hedge-fund trading busts.

Separately, crypto brokerage Genesis warned of the risk of bankruptcy amid contagion from FTX. The fall of other parts of Sam Bankman-Fried’s empire, including Alameda Research, is contributing to reduced liquidity in crypto markets. Bitcoin is trading below $16,000, near the lowest since November 2020.

Key stories and developments:

Fallen Hedge Fund 3AC’s Founder Says FTX Set Crypto Back Years

Crypto Firm Genesis Said to Warn of Bankruptcy Without New Funds

Is Bitcoin Still Heading Into an Ice Age? (Podcast)

US Prosecutors Opened Probe of FTX Months Before Its Collapse

(Time references are New York unless otherwise stated.)

Singapore Police Says Investigations Into Binance.com Ongoing (5:55 a.m.)

The Singapore police is investigating Binance.com over a possible breach of local payment services rules.

“Investigations are ongoing,” according to a statement from the police. The probe started when the nation’s financial regulator referred the case to the white-collar crime unit of the Singapore Police Force, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said a day earlier.

Crypto Lender Sued for Blocking Withdrawals by Wealthy Investors (5:55 a.m.)

Cryptoasset lender, Nexo Capital, was sued in London by investors who allege they were blocked from withdrawing parts of their $126 million in assets from the exchange in March 2021, when one Bitcoin was worth more than $54,000.

Fallen Hedge Fund 3AC’s Founder Says FTX Set Crypto Back Years (4:47 a.m.)

High-profile crypto crises could set the industry back by almost a decade, according to the co-founder of Three Arrows Capital.

“Some industry leaders have said the FTX collapse set the industry back by five years,” Su Zhu said in a rare in-person interview in Abu Dhabi. “I think it’s even longer than that — seven or eight years — maybe even longer, if the underlying issues aren’t solved.”

FTX Group Bankruptcy Filing Shows Cash Balance of $1.24 Billion (1:30 p.m. HK)

An FTX bankruptcy filing showed that, as of Nov. 20, the exchange and a number of affiliates had a combined cash balance of $1.24 billion — more than the debtors identified last week.

The document from Alvarez & Marsal North America LLC, the proposed financial adviser to FTX, said trading house Alameda and related firms had a cash balance of almost $401 million.

Bahamas Agrees to Let Delaware Judge Handle Part of FTX Meltdown (8 a.m. HK)

Bahamas court officials dropped their opposition to moving one piece of FTX’s restructuring case to a US court in Delaware, according to a court filing.

Liquidators appointed in the Bahamas for one FTX affiliate agreed to move a case they filed in New York to Delaware, where more than 100 units are under the oversight of a federal judge, FTX lawyers said in papers filed in US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

Tom Brady, Steph Curry Draw Texas’ Scrutiny Over FTX Plugs (7:15 a.m. HK)

A Texas regulator is scrutinizing payments received by celebrities to endorse FTX US, along with what disclosures were made and how accessible they were to retail investors

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and the Golden State Warriors’ Steph Curry are among the high-profile people being investigated.

Crypto Firm Genesis Said to Warn of Bankruptcy (6 a.m. HK)

Digital-asset brokerage Genesis is struggling to raise fresh cash for its lending unit, and it’s warning potential investors that it may need to file for bankruptcy if its efforts fail, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Genesis, which has faced a liquidity crunch in the wake of crypto exchange FTX’s bankruptcy filing this month, has spent the past several days seeking at least $1 billion in fresh capital, the people said.

US Prosecutors Opened Probe of FTX Months Before Its Collapse (4:14 p.m.)

Long before Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency empire collapsed this month, it already was on the radar of federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, led by Damian Williams, spent several months working on a sweeping examination of crypto currency platforms with US and offshore arms and had started poking into FTX’s massive exchange operations, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Cathie Wood Goes on Coinbase Buying Spree as Wall Street Sours (12:21 p.m.)

Wall Street’s waning conviction in Coinbase Global Inc. has done little to deter Cathie Wood. Instead, she’s been scooping up shares of the struggling cryptocurrency exchange in the wake of the collapse of FTX.

Wood’s Ark Investment Management funds have bought more than 1.3 million shares of Coinbase since the start of November, worth about $56 million based on Monday’s trading price, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The shopping spree started just as FTX’s demise began.

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