Things keep going from bad to worse at embattled cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
After filing for bankruptcy and announcing that chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried had resigned last Friday (November 11), the company reported over the weekend that it had been hacked and $477 million U.S. of client funds had been stolen.
John Ray, FTX’s new CEO and chief restructuring officer, said the crypto exchange had removed its trading and withdrawal functions, and that it is moving all remaining digital assets to a cold wallet for safekeeping following the alleged hack.
FTX said the hack began hours after the company officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors. The company said that it lost a total of $477 million U.S. in the theft.
According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, stablecoins and other tokens were quickly converted to Ethereum (ETHER) on decentralized exchanges around the world, a technique that is commonly used by hackers to prevent their theft from being detected and seized by authorities.
The hack comes after FTX imploded in spectacular fashion last week, announcing that it needed $8 billion U.S. in emergency funding to halt a liquidity crisis. The drama ended with FTX filing for bankruptcy at week’s end.
The situation with FTX has sent cryptocurrency prices down sharply, with Bitcoin (BTC) now trading at $16,000 U.S., down 76% from an all-time high of $68,000 U.S. reached a year ago.
