Founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX Sam Bankman-Fried is seeking commitments from investors to raise cash, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
The former chief executive and a few remaining employees at FTX spent the weekend searching for commitments from investors, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
FTX announced Friday that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and that Bankman-Fried was stepping down as CEO. The collapse came after rival exchange Binance abandoned a rescue deal starting a liquidity crisis that panicked traders who withdrew $6 billion from the platform in just 72 hours.
FTX’s collapse prompted Washington lawmakers to more closely scrutinize the company as regulators opened investigations on how the industry operates.
Earlier on Tuesday, FTX outlined a “severe liquidity crisis” in its U.S. bankruptcy filings, which said the group could have more than 1 million creditors.
“FTX faced a severe liquidity crisis that necessitated the filing of these cases on an emergency basis last Friday,” the court filing stated. “Questions arose about Mr. Bankman-Fried’s leadership and the handling of FTX’s complex array of assets and businesses under his direction.”
The filings also confirmed that FTX had responded to a cyber attack on Nov. 11, after saying on Saturday it had seen “unauthorized transactions” on its platform.
