FTX owes more than $3bn to its biggest unsecured creditors

The cryptocurrency exchange has assets and liabilities of at least $10bn each and its bankruptcy case could involve more than a million creditors

FTX and its affiliates filed for bankruptcy in Delaware, the US, on November 11. Reuters

Sam Bankman-Fried’s bankrupt cryptocurrency empire owes its 50 biggest unsecured creditors a total of $3.1 billion, new court papers show, with a pair of customers owed more than $200 million each.

FTX-linked entities owe their single biggest unsecured creditor more than $226 million, according to a redacted list of the top 50 creditors that was filed late on Saturday.

All of them were listed as customers and ten have claims of more than $100 million each, the filings show.

The creditors, whose names and locations weren’t disclosed, are among the vast array of people and institutions caught up in FTX’s insolvency. The 50 largest claims are all from customers owed $21 million or more.

In the US, bankrupt companies are required to disclose information about their debts as part of insolvency proceedings. Creditors will get to weigh in on the best way for FTX to repay its debts as the bankruptcy unfolds.

FTX said it had assets and liabilities of at least $10 billion each in preliminary court papers. The case may involve more than one million creditors, according to lawyers for FTX.

The case is FTX Trading Ltd, 22-11068, US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

FTX Europe, the regional branch of the cryptocurrency exchange now in bankruptcy proceedings, unsuccessfully sought a trading licence in Switzerland, NZZ reported on Sunday, citing sources.

FTX Europe, based in Pfaffikon near Zurich, had applied to Swiss banking regulator Finma for a licence for an “organised trading system” which was declined recently, the paper reported. It did not give reasons for why the application failed.

Finma declined to comment, citing policy on applications, the paper reported and it was impossible to reach FTX Europe, which has now shut down.

FTX Trading and about 100 affiliated companies are starting a strategic review of global assets as a part of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process.