By Nathan Ferguson
Liquid Global woes worsened as the exchange announced its operational halt five days after suspending withdrawals. From the Twitter announcement, Liquid attributed the operational halt declared on November 20 as necessitated by the directive from FTX trading.
Although summative, the statement attributed the halt to the Chapter 11 proceedings initiated in the Delaware Courts. Although optimistic about working through the issues, Liquid had suspended withdrawals mid-last week in compliance with the voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings. Nevertheless, through the Financial Services Agency, Japan had instructed FTX Japan to cease business orders on November 10.
Liquidity Crisis Hits FTX Subsidiaries
Global Liquid joins the ballooning list of casualties comprising FTX subsidiaries affected by the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings affecting the parent firm. Voyager Digital is confronting a similar crisis following the FTX Group collapse. The crypto lender has been scouting for a buyer, regretting the acquisition of its assets by FTX US in September. The search coincides with CrossTower exchange preparation to reignite the bidding process and present a revised offer to acquire Voyager’s assets.
An exemption from the liquidity crisis affecting FTX subsidiaries is LedgerX operating as FTX US Derivative. LedgerX is among the licensed FTX subsidiaries acknowledged in the recent review by Perella Weinberg – a provider of financial services- to have solvent balance sheets. Further scrutiny of LedgerX portrayed it as running under responsible management and a valuable franchise exempt from the debtor’s list during FTX’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
The assessment report published by Perella Weinberg recognized other FTX affiliates, including Quoine, Zubr Exchange, Teknoloji Ve Ticaret in Turkey, and FTX EU, were portrayed as debtors.
More Operational Halts Anticipated?
The decision by Liquid Global to cease operations leaves Salt Lending operations in doubt. Earlier, when halting pausing withdrawals, Salt’s head Shawn Owen admitted of FTX collapse affected the core of its business adversely. The news followed Blockfi’s November 10 announcement to pause withdrawals.
The subsequent presser by Blockfi on November 14 eroded hopes of restoring normal business operations as it ruled out withdrawals. With FTX affiliates locked into the bankruptcy proceedings, Liquid Global’s decision to halt operations will likely trigger others into a series of ceasing activities on their platforms.