FTX’s new administration, tasked with handling the bankruptcy proceedings of the now defunct crypto exchange, is doing its job well, this time through the sale of the LedgerX service.
Announcement has been made of the sale of LedgerX, a crypto provider of futures and options, to an affiliate of Miami International Holdings for $50 million, thus increasing the pool of liquid assets that will sooner or later have to be returned to debtors.
Summary
FTX and the sale of the LedgerX crypto service for $50 million.
FTX and its affiliated debtors announced today that an agreement has been completed with i M7 Holdings, LLC, an affiliate of Miami International Holdings, Inc. (“MIH”), to sell LedgerX LLC, FTX’s crypto futures and options exchange and clearing unit.
The sale of LedgerX, not to be confused with the hardware wallet manufacturing company Ledger, came as part of the process of liquidating FTX’s assets under the District of Delaware’s “Chapter 11”.
With this move, FTX’s new bankruptcy management will have an additional $50 million in liquid assets, which it can use to repay the exchange’s debtors or initiate future strategic actions.
Current CEO and Chief Restructuring Officer of FTX Debtors, John J. Ray III said:
“We are pleased to reach this agreement with MIH, which is an example of our continuing efforts to monetize assets to deliver recoveries to stakeholders.”
In January, a bankruptcy court had approved the sale of LedgerX and other FTX assets after passing a series of bureaucratic conditions .
Some 117 parties at that time had indicated a willingness to acquire those assets that were destined for auction, such as Embed, LedgerX, FTX Japan and FTX Europe.
However, the sale of LedgerX to M7 Holding, a family-owned private equity investment firm based in Akron, Ohio, will first have to go through a sale hearing to approve the transaction, which is set for 4 May 2023.
For more details and access to documents related to the court proceedings, including a copy of the agreement for the sale of LedgerX by FTX, you can visit the website.
FTX and the possibility of reviving the crypto exchange after the sale of LedgerX
Following the sale of LedgerX for $50 million to M7 Holding, the chances of a future restart of the FTX crypto exchange are increasing.
On 12 April, attorneys Sullivan & Cromwell, who represent FTX, said the bankrupt company had recovered about $7.3 billion in liquid assets.
As of November 2022 alone, the sum amounted to $4.8 billion: this means that in about 6 months, $2.5 billion has been recovered, to which must be added the new $50 million from the divestment of the options and futures trading service.
According to FTX’s legal team, consideration could be given to restarting the crypto exchange‘s operations in the second quarter of 2024, if there are no losses and the new administration is able to find new liquid assets to allocate to affiliated debtors.
Although FTX has lost all the esteem and trustworthiness it enjoyed prior to the bankruptcy of Sam Bankman Fried‘s company, the idea of relaunching the exchange could prove to be an apt move in an effort to recover assets and pay off current debts.
Indeed, it is worth recalling that FTX still owes about $8 billion in compensation to users who lost their capital during the ecosystem’s collapse, 3 of which belong to the top 50 creditors.
Who knows whether, in the event that the exchange restarts, the former CEO of FTX, and a convicted criminal, will use that service to trade cryptocurrencies.
Even so, after his release on $250 million bail in December 2022, Sam Bankman Fried will not be able to execute trades exceeding $1,000 on financial markets.
All providers of options and futures trading in the crypto market
LedgerX, the company sold by FTX, represents an options and futures exchange dedicated mainly to professional parties in the field of crypto trading.
In the cryptocurrency market, there are a variety of services that offer the possibility of executing trades through derivative instruments and with an interface tailored to professional needs.
In recent years, these kinds of services have spread like wildfire, highlighting a great demand from experienced users within the world of crypto markets.
The landscape of trading service providers that include tools such as options and leveraged trading includes both centralized platforms, such as LedgerX, and decentralized applications that serve as trustless exchanges.
Centralized services that force their clients to provide personal data through identity verifications such as KYC include names such as Deribit,, Bybit, Binance, and Delta Finance.
In terms of the options market alone, the most prominent player is Deribit, which encompasses almost all of the open interest on Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Outside of crypto exchanges, there are platforms such as CME Group that allow for professional exposure to the crypto market.
On the other hand, as far as options and futures trading DEX is concerned, there are several applications that act in a decentralized manner, without requiring names and information of the users who use them.
The amount of decentralized platforms that include these services are expanding and new services will probably emerge in the coming years, although there are already realities widely used by the crypto community such as Dydx, Dopex, Lyra, Hegic,GMX, Vela Exchange, Synthetix, and Ribbon Finance.
