Rise and fall of crypto exchange FTX
Nov 10 (Reuters) – Cryptocurrency exchange FTX teetered on the brink of failure on Thursday after a bailout by bigger rival Binance collapsed. CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said he was exploring all options for his firm.
Here is a history of FTX since its foundation in 2019:
2019:
May – Former Wall Street trader Sam Bankman-Fried and former Google employee Gary Wang founded FTX, the owner and operator of the FTX.COM cryptocurrency exchange.
2020:
August – FTX acquired mobile portfolio tracking application Blockfolio for $150 million.
2021:
July – A $900 million funding round valued FTX at $18 billion.
September – FTX signed a sponsorship deal with Mercedes’ Formula 1 team.
October – FTX raised $25 billion worth of capital from investors including Singapore’s Temasek and Tiger Global.
2022:
Jan 27 – FTX’s U.S. arm said it was valued at $8 billion after raising $400 million in its first round of funding from investors including SoftBank ( 9984.T ) and Temasek.
Jan. 31 – FTX raised $400 million from investors including SoftBank ( 9984.T ) at a $32 billion valuation.
June 4 – FTX signed a reported $135 million sponsorship deal for naming rights to the Miami Heat’s home arena.
July 1 – FTX signed a deal with an option to buy controversial crypto lender BlockFi for up to $240 million.
July 22 – FTX offered a partial bailout of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital. Voyager called it a “low-ball bid”.
July 29 – FTX said it won full approval to operate its exchange and clearing house in Dubai.
August 19 – A US banking regulator ordered crypto exchange FTX to stop “false and misleading” claims it had made about whether funds in the company are insured by the government.
September 9 – FTX’s venture capital fund said it would buy a 30% stake in SkyBridge Capital.
November 2 – Crypto news site CoinDesk reported a leaked balance sheet showing that Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s crypto trading firm, was heavily dependent on FTX’s native token, FTT. Reuters was unable to confirm the report.
November 6 – Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said his firm would liquidate its holdings of FTT due to unspecified “recent revelations”.
November 7 – Bankman-Fried said “FTX is fine. Assets are fine”.
November 8 – FTT collapses by 72% as clients flood the exchange with withdrawal requests.
November 9 – Binance decided against pursuing a non-binding agreement to bail out FTX.
Compiled by Harish Sridharan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sam Holmes
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