The founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX denies fleeing to South America |

The former CEO of one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges has denied he fled to South America after the company filed for bankruptcy.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was asked by Reuters about speculation on Twitter that he had flown to Argentina, and replied in a text message: “No.”

The 30-year-old man, was removed from the position of chief executive officertold Reuters he was in the Bahamas, where he lives.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency exchange has been embroiled in further controversy after it said it had detected unauthorized transactions and analysts said millions of dollars in assets had been moved from the platform in “suspicious circumstances.”

FTX filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday after its bigger rival Binance pulled out of a proposed acquisition.

At least $1bn (£845m) worth of client funds have disappeared from the platform, Reuters reported, citing sources.

The news agency said Mr Bankman-Fried had transferred $10bn (£8.4bn) of client funds to his trading firm Alameda Research.

Further questions came when FTX’s U.S. General Counsel, Ryne Miller, tweeted that the firm’s digital assets were being moved into so-called cold storage “to mitigate damage when unauthorized transactions were observed.” Appeared.

Cold storage refers to encrypted wallets that are not connected to the internet to protect against hackers.

Earlier, Mr Miller tweeted that he was “investigating anomalies in wallet movements related to the consolidation of FTX balances across exchanges.”

Blockchain analytics firm Nansen said $659 million (£557 million) had been outflowed from FTX International and FTX US in the past 24 hours.

Another analyst firm Elliptic said crypto assets worth around $473 million (£400 million) were “moved from FTX wallets in suspicious circumstances in the early hours of this morning”, but could not confirm the tokens had been stolen.

The crisis surrounding exchanges has raised further questions about the regulation of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.

Big Ideas Live 2022

For more on science and technology, explore the future with Sky News at Big Ideas Live 2022.
Learn more and book tickets here

Source link