Bitcoin’s price climbed $18,000 to a new one month high on Thursday morning. After attorneys for the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX declared they had recovered $5 billion worth of liquid assets, this price surge was inevitable. The crypto markets rose Thursday morning after the failure of the crypto exchange.
Bitcoin rose by more than 4.5% overnight, reaching $18,335 on Thursday morning. After the 8:30 a.m. announcement, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency dropped to $18,000. ET CPI data showed that inflation has slowed in line to Wall Street estimates.
Bitcoin Price Rises, FTX Assets Are Recovered
FTX attorneys who were overseeing bankruptcy proceedings said they had recovered $5B in cash, digital, and other assets during a Wednesday court hearing. These assets could be used to repay the 9 million creditors of the crypto exchange. Although the total amount owed to creditors remains unknown, initial bankruptcy filings indicated that it was between $1 billion and $10 Billion.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, detailed his account on Thursday in a Substack post. “I didn’t steal funds and I certainly did not stash billions of dollars away,” he said. He wrote that ‘nearly all my assets were and are utilizable for backingstop FTX customers.’
Bankman-Fried claimed that FTX US, an American exchange, had $352 million in cash, above the customer balances, when he resigned. SBF claims that FTX US remains solvent and has always been solvent. “Even now, I believe that FTX International would have a real chance of customers being made substantially whole if it were to restart.”
Bankman-Fried believes that Alameda borrowed $8 Billion in 2021 from FTX, with $7 billion of liquidity. However, it failed to adequately hedge its exposure when larger crashes hit the market. He still believes Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was responsible for Alameda’s ‘extreme, quick, and targeted crash’ that left the company insolvent. This then spread to FTX. SBF did not address lavish spending by executives and lack of oversight.
SBF has never been a friend of Attorney John Ray III, who is acting as FTX CEO and overseeing the bankruptcy. Ray had previously criticized FTX operations by saying that he has never seen such a complete failure in corporate controls at any level of an organisation, from the absence of financial statements to a total failure of any internal controls and governance whatsoever. Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty last week to the slew of criminal charges.
Chart of Bitcoin Prices
Since Dec. 14, it’s been the first time BTC has surpassed $18,000. Bitcoin hasn’t been able maintain this level since the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in November.
According to CoinTelegraph data, approximately 13% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply has returned profit with Bitcoin’s price at $18,200.
Action on Cryptocurrency Prices
The majority of cryptocurrency prices rose on Thursday, as Bitcoin price recovered. Ethereum surged 5% to briefly surpass $1,400 – the highest level since the FTX meltdown. Binance’s BNB token surpassed $285 for its first time since mid December. Dogecoin, a popular alt-coin, rose 3.5% to temporarily reach 8 cents.