FTX considers multiple proposals almost a year after filing for bankruptcy

Lawyers are continuing to work to figure out what’s next for FTX almost a year after the crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy.

Kevin Cofsky, partner at investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners — which is tasked with exploring restructuring and capital market opportunities for FTX Group — told Judge John Dorsey of the U.S. Bankruptcy for the District of Delaware that a stalking horse bid, a term for an initial bid on the assets of a bankrupt company, will likely be announced on Dec. 16.

Cofsky also noted that the exchange is considering multiple proposals on what to do next with FTX.

“We have been engaging in an outreach process with a number of interested parties to either acquire the legacy exchange assets and/or to partner with the debtors in connection with a launch of the exchange,” Cofsky said during Tuesday’s hearing. “We’ve been evaluating that process relative to the potential to reorganize the assets on a standalone basis.”

Part of the discussion on what happens next with the exchange hones in on whether customer personal information should stay redacted.

Redacting customer assets

Before Tuesday’s hearing, lawyers representing FTX said that customer information would be valuable for any of its future plans.

“As the Debtors’ investment banker has testified — and will further testify at any hearing on this Motion — the immediate release of the Debtors’ institutional customer names would be value-destructive and harm the ongoing efforts to monetize the Debtors’ exchange assets,” they said in a motion in September.

Cofsky said his views have not changed since the summer.

“In fact my experience since my last testimony only serves to enhance my view that the value of those customer identities to the estate is high and very important,” Cofsky said on Tuesday.

The customer list has been sealed, but some, citing bankruptcy precedence, and a group of media outlets have argued that it should be released.

Judge Dorsey approved the order to redact customer information for the next 90 days.

“I now know that there are at least three parties who are interested in purchasing the asset, the platform,” Dorsey said. “Just as a matter of common sense, a platform without customers is nothing so it has to have value.”

FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022.

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