$333 million in Bitcoin disappeared from FTX days before company filed for bankruptcy protection – Bitcoin News

Although it is widely reported that hundreds of millions of dollars in Ethereum-based tokens were removed from the FTX wallet after the company filed for bankruptcy on November 11, 2022, another $333 million worth of FTX-related bitcoins somehow disappeared. At one point, FTX had $3.3 billion worth of bitcoins during its heyday, but by November 7, 2022, the exchange had 0.25 bitcoin.

5 days before FTX filed for bankruptcy, 20,176 Bitcoin left the exchange in less than 24 hours

After Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) told the public that Binance would dump all of its FTT tokens, people immediately started watching FTX’s reaction. In addition to watching FTX’s reaction to CZ’s statements, people began looking at the beleaguered exchange’s crypto balance sheet.

A good number of people are looking at the Ethereum-based addresses that pulled funds from the exchange on the same day it filed for bankruptcy protection. However, FTX also held at least 20,176.84 bitcoin (BTC) on November 5, 2022. Nevertheless, FTX’s BTC reserves fell the next day to 220.26 bitcoin. By November 7, 2022, data revealed that the exchange contained only 0.25 bitcoin, as it was all transferred well before the firm’s bankruptcy.

Last year, when FTX was a top exchange in terms of global crypto trading volume, cryptoquant.com data shows that the trading platform had 75,303 BTC, and bitcoin changed hands for around $46K per unit. At this exchange rate in mid-April 2021, the holdings of 75K+ bitcoin were worth approximately 3.3 billion nominal US dollars.

In mid-September 2021, FTX’s bitcoin reserves dropped to the 20,000 range and remained that way for well over a year. An archived snapshot taken on May 8, 2022 indicates that coinglass.com data had once shown FTX to be the 11th largest exchange in terms of BTC reserves.

On that day, FTX held 20,048.43 bitcoins according to coinglass.com’s data. Coinglass now places FTX in 18th place as it shows that the exchange has 7.03 BTC. Cryptoquant.com’s calculations indicate that FTX’s wallet has about 7 BTC on November 19, 2022. 20,176.84 BTC is worth about $333 million, but when it was transferred, the funds were worth about $409 million.

The 20,176.84 BTC that left FTX was reported further via Twitter and a couple of crypto media publications. Also, FTX’s bitcoins disappeared before CZ told the public that Binance would buy FTX and later revealed that Binance backed out of the deal due to due diligence.

While the proof-of-reserve concept has gained traction, a number of exchange addresses were already known to the public. FTX’s BTC reserve was recorded by a number of onchain data sites, including cryptoquant.com, glassnode.com and coinglass.com.

What do you think about the 20,000 bitcoins that disappeared from FTX on November 7, 2022? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is the news editor at Bitcoin.com News and a financial technology journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.