FTX Wins Court Approval To Sell Nearly $900M Worth Of Grayscale, Bitwise Trust Assets

A Delaware bankruptcy court approved the request of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX to sell nearly $900 million of its trust assets, with the proceeds to be used to repay creditors affected by the spectacular implosion in 2022 of the then-billion-dollar crypto empire.

In a Nov. 3 filing, FTX informed the court that it is ready to sell its Grayscale assets held at Bitwise and Grayscale, comprising a wide range of exchange-traded products that the investment company manages, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum Trusts.

FTX's stakes in these trusts would be sold in a manner that increases their value and does not impact the broader digital investment market, the court filing read.

The court document showed that FTX's total trust stakes were worth $744 million as of Oct. 25, and the amount has since increased to $873 million.

FTX holds approximately $807 million worth of stakes in Grayscale Investments and also owns assets valued at $66 million in Bitwise.

This is not the first time that FTX has sought the court's approval to sell its assets to repay creditors.

In September, Delaware District Judge John Dorsey approved an order to allow the now-bankrupt crypto empire to sell, hedge price movements, or generate yield through staking off the crypto assets it is holding to repay its creditors.

At the time, FTX proposed to liquidate around $3.4 billion in crypto assets, which included $1.16 billion in Solana (SOL), $560 million in Bitcoin (BTC), $192 million in Ethereum (ETH), $137 million in Aptos (APT), $120 million in Tether (USDT), $119 million in Ripple XRP, $49 million in BitDAO (BIT), $46 million in the DeFi project on LayerZero, Stargate Finance (STG), $41 million in Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), and $37 million in Wrapped Ether (WETH).

The new court-appointed FTX administration has been tracking down assets, investigating and solving the complicated web of debts and transactions the company put itself into, including the debts it owed to various creditors and customers who invested in the company's trading platform.

So far, FTX administrators have recovered around $7 billion in assets, which includes $3.4 billion worth of crypto.

FTX, co-founded and then led by the crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, was one of the largest centralized crypto exchange platforms before it came crashing down in November 2022.

Bankman-Fried is currently in prison, waiting for his sentencing next year.