The complete list of creditors owed money by the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has been released, revealing a slew of companies and government entities entangled in the exchange's demise.
Lawyers for FTX filed a creditor matrix (a list of the creditors in a case) with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware late on January 25. The 115-page document reveals a vast global web of companies owed money by the defunct exchange, including airlines, hotels, charities, banks, venture capital firms, media outlets, and crypto companies, as well as US and international government agencies.
Coinbase, Galaxy Digital, Yuga Labs, Circle, Bittrex, Sky Mavis, Chainalysis, Messari, and entities of Binance are among the notable crypto and Web3-related companies owed money by FTX. Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Meta, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Twitter were also listed as creditors. Among the media outlets mentioned were The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and CoinDesk. The tax offices of several United States state agencies, as well as the federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS), were listed. Other government entities, including those in Japan, Australia, and Hong Kong, are also creditors.
The filing did not specify how much each entity owed, and inclusion on the list does not equate to them having a trading account with FTX.
Luckily, the names of nearly 9.7 million (9,693,985) FTX customers whose funds were frozen on the exchange were redacted from the document.
As the impacts of the FTX collapse continues to outfold, it’s as important a time as ever to remind you of the importance of self-storage.
There’s no doubt that exchanges are a convenient way to buy and sell cryptocurrency: you simply have to log into your account via an application or website in order to view your account balances and make transactions. But when you decide to leave your cryptocurrency on an exchange, you’re trading safety for convenience.
In 2022, more than $3 billion was outright stolen in 125 hacks alone, and if the last few years are anything to go by, this number is only going to grow in 2023. Simply put, you NEED to remove your assets off exchanges if you want to ensure their safety.
BUT WHERE CAN YOU STORE THEM?
Cold storage hardware wallets. This way, you can rest assured that your crypto wealth is in your hands and your hands only. Online digital wallets, or “hot wallets”, whether provided by a crypto exchange or a third party, all require internet access. They are considered the most vulnerable wallets in the world as they store your security keys and codes in an online environment.
Cold storage devices such as hardware wallets, however, are offline, meaning that they aren’t vulnerable to the most common hacks you see today. Your private keys are generated and stored on the hardware wallet which is then protected by a PIN and an optional passphrase. The keys are never exposed to the internet so they can’t be stolen or copied. That’s why it’s known as cold storage.
Ready to protect your assets? Head to Coinstop for the best cold storage solutions.