FTX CEO says he is exploring rebooting the exchange: Report

John Ray, who took implicit arsenic CEO of cryptocurrency speech FTX anterior to bankruptcy proceedings, has reportedly acceptable up a task unit to see restarting FTX.com.

According to a Jan. 19 study from the Wall Street Journal, Ray said everything was “on the table” erstwhile it came to the aboriginal of FTX.com, including a imaginable way guardant with rebooting the exchange. FTX Trading, doing concern arsenic FTX.com, was 1 of astir 130 companies nether FTX Group that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy successful November 2022.

Ray reportedly was considering reviving the crypto speech arsenic portion of efforts to marque users whole. FTX reported connected Jan. 17 that it had identified astir $5.5 billion of liquid assets successful its investigations, with much than $3 cardinal owed to its apical 50 creditors. According to the FTX CEO, helium considered feedback from immoderate stakeholders who saw the speech arsenic a “viable business”.

The illness of FTX and consequent transgression charges for galore of its executives sent ripples done the crypto abstraction successful 2022. Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang person pled blameworthy to fraud charges, portion Ray’s predecessor Sam Bankman-Fried has largely denied galore of the allegations against him. He pled not blameworthy and is scheduled to look successful tribunal successful October for his trial.

Related: US authorities motorboat leafage to notify FTX’s alleged victims astir SBF’s case

Ray was reportedly assisted by Wang and Ellison successful tracking down immoderate of the company’s assets, but helium has often traded barbs with Bankman-Fried. The erstwhile CEO claimed helium had been pressured by instrumentality steadfast Sullivan & Crowell and the FTX US wide counsel into naming Ray arsenic the caput of FTX anterior to the firm’s bankruptcy. Ray has besides said Bankman-Fried nary longer has immoderate relation astatine the exchange and cannot talk connected its behalf.

“We don’t request to beryllium dialoguing with him,” Ray reportedly said, referring to Bankman-Fried. “He hasn’t told america thing that I don’t already know.”

FTX US is solvent, arsenic it ever arsenic been.https://t.co/XjcyYFsoU0 pic.twitter.com/kn9Wm9wxjl

SBF said successful a Jan. 12 station connected a “pre-mortem overview” of FTX that if the speech were to “reboot,” it mightiness beryllium imaginable to reimburse customers with assets connected hand. The squad handling the bankruptcy proceedings and Bankman-Fried person publically disagreed connected approaches calculating FTX’s equilibrium sheet, with the erstwhile CEO claiming FTX US was “fully solvent”.